Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the department's workforce is shrinking by around a quarter in a "dramatic restructuring." In a Thursday press release, Kennedy said 10,000 jobs are being cut as "part of this most recent transformation." Combined with buyouts and early retirement, this will result in a "total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees," Kennedy said. The fresh round of job cuts will hit the Food and Drug Administration the hardest, the Washington Post reports. HHS says 3,500 jobs are being cut at the FDA, almost a fifth ot its workforce, but it won't "affect drug, medical device, or food reviewers, nor will it impact inspectors."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lose 2,400 employees, around 18% of its workforce, in the latest cuts, the Wall Street Journal reports. The department said the CDC is "returning to its core mission" of preparing for and fighting epidemics. Kennedy said the department is being streamlined, with its 28 divisions consolidated into 15 new divisions. "We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America or AHA," he said in a post on X.
The department said half of its 10 regional offices would be cut. HHS said the overhaul would focus the department on its "new" priority of "ending America's epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins." "The entire federal workforce is downsizing now. So this will be a painful period for HHS," Kennedy acknowledged in a video announcement on Thursday. Earlier this week, he said Elon Musk's DOGE team had "identified extraordinary waste" in the department, CBS News reports. (More Health and Human Services stories.)
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