Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday a sweeping restructuring plan that will eliminate approximately 10,000 jobs and merge numerous divisions within the agency.
The effort aims to streamline operations, save taxpayer dollars, and restore trust by refocusing the agency on its original mission.
Kennedy’s restructuring will reduce the HHS workforce from 82,000 to roughly 62,000, a nearly 25% cut since the beginning of President Trump’s second term.
This new round of layoffs comes in addition to the 10,000 employees who voluntarily left the department after Trump returned to the White House.
In a direct message to the American public, Kennedy explained the necessity of these cuts. “This will be a painful period for HHS as we downsize,” he said. “We’re keenly focused on paring away excess administrators while increasing the number of scientists and frontline healthcare providers so that we can do a better job.”
The cuts are expected to generate about $1.3 billion annually in savings, Kennedy’s office said. Under the plan, 28 divisions within HHS will consolidate into 15 streamlined units.
Central to this restructuring is the creation of a new division, the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), designed to unify scattered agencies dealing with mental health, addiction, workplace safety, and chronic disease prevention.
In a striking example of Kennedy’s emphasis on efficiency, significant job reductions. These include 3,500 positions at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—nearly 19% of its workforce—and 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), representing an 18% reduction.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will lose 1,200 positions, while the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will see 300 job cuts.
The CDC will take direct responsibility for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, reinforcing the CDC’s core mission of epidemic prevention and response.
Kennedy promised these cuts would not affect essential health services, specifically pledging that FDA inspectors and CDC infectious-disease specialists would remain unaffected.
Kennedy also announced the creation of a new Office of Strategy, merging the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Another newly formed role, the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement, will oversee investigations and crack down on waste within federal health programs.
“When I arrived, I found that over half of our employees don’t even come to work,” Kennedy explained, adding that parts of HHS had become “accountable to industries rather than public health.”
Kennedy’s announcement aligns closely with President Trump’s broader effort to dramatically reduce bureaucracy across the federal government.
Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk, has already overseen thousands of layoffs across various departments, sparking multiple lawsuits challenging those dismissals.
Despite potential controversy, Kennedy framed the overhaul as beneficial to taxpayers and the American public. “Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated civil servants,” he explained. “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.”