Table of Contents
WASHINGTON – The Health and Human Services department has been set to defeat 10,000 jobs and to streamline authorities under her secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Thursday, the agency announced the restructuring plans as part of wider Trump administration -efforts to reduce the federal workforce and save costs. HHS claimed that firing 10,000 federal employees in its divisions would save $ 1.8 billion and “would serve multiple goals without influencing critical services.”
Combined with other efforts for Trump administration, including early retirement and buyout offers, about 20,000 people will leave the health department, HHS said. The department goes from 82,000 employees to 62,000, a reduction of almost 25%.
Read more
Go deeper: HHS Under RFK Jr.
HHS itself would go under the new plan from 28 to 15 divisions. Several of those existing departments would be combined in a new agency, the administration for a healthy America, a name that reflects that Kennedy’s America again makes a healthy focus on chronic diseases. Among other things, authorities would include the new AHA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration and HHS’s substance use and healthcare professional offices.
“We will eliminate a whole alpha soup from departments, while keeping their core functions,” Kennedy said in a video message Posted on X.
The announcement builds on several efforts to reduce the federal workforce under the leadership of Elon Musk and the US Doge Service. The Trump administration dismissed thousands of probation workers in February, which influenced a wide range of employees at HHS. Employees who worked on food safety, health health and the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases were included in the sweep. Device records at the Food and Drug Administration were mainly affected, although many were hired a week later.
The administration has also offered officials $ 25,000 to leave their positions and has established a strict work-in-office policy that has alienated some employees. According to some employees, morality in agencies such as the FDA and NIH is extremely low.
Kennedy’s plan would also transfer the administration of HHS for strategic readiness and response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last HHS secretary, Xavier Becerra, increased ASPR to an operational division within HHS, but this would be the department in another agency and the strategic national stock of medical and emergency situations would return to CDC control.
By one HHS Fact SheetThe cutbacks include: 3500 employees of Food and Drug Administration, or about 19% of the agency’s workforce; 2,400 CDC employees, or approximately 18% of its workforce; 1200 at National Institutes of Health, or approximately 6% of its workforce; and 300 employees of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or about 4% of its workforce. The Wall Street Journal reported On the cuts earlier on Thursday.
The Factsheet notes that the FDA cuts are intended to streamline the administrative activities and “have no influence on drugs, medical devices or food review, nor will it affect inspectors.”
Robert Califf, who led the FDA in the Obama and Biden administrations, said that it is “difficult to imagine that it can be done without hindering fundamental services, but as all such activities depends a lot on how you do it and what the actual plan is.”
Califf said that the Trump government had not treated employees with respect, which resulted in a ‘demoralized’ workforce.
“I have never seen a group of hard -working people who are treated so disrespectfully in the workplace,” he said.
He said it would be possible to cut 3,500 jobs from the FDA and to protect the assessment of medicines, medical devices and other medical products, but only at the expense of other areas.
An FDA employee told Stat that they had to meet their manager this week to discuss their skills, probably to help leaders find out how they can shift the responsibilities after mass dismissals. Others said they had no signs at all that the cuts were made.
The Senate confirmed Marty Makary as FDA Commissioner and Jay Bhattacharya on Tuesday as NIH director. Legislers insisted on Makary at his confirmation hearing on the DOGE cuts at the FDA and urge him to personally assess staff before any large clearance of the agency. It is unclear whether Makary had some input in who would be released from the FDA, but it seems unlikely, given that he has just started the job.
“If confirmed as a commissioner, you have my commitment that I will do an assessment of the staff and the staff of the agency,” said Makary.
Matthew REPER has contributed reporting.
Have you been struck by spending cuts and restructuring at HHS?
*Required