The administration under Trump has announced plans to reduce the Department of Health and Human Services by approximately 10,000 full-time positions, which represents about 10% of the workforce across federal health agencies nationwide.
“This restructuring, combined with HHS’ additional initiatives such as early retirement and the Fork in the Road program, will result in a workforce reduction from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees,” stated the department in a press release. They estimate that the adjustments will lead to a taxpayer savings of $1.8 billion.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has indicated that there will be a reduction of 3,500 jobs at the Food and Drug Administration and 2,400 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to a U.S. official, there will be no cuts to FDA inspectors or personnel involved in infectious diseases at the CDC.
Additionally, the administration will eliminate 1,200 positions from the National Institutes of Health and 300 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health officials had been anticipating significant reductions to be revealed this week as part of the comprehensive reorganization designed in collaboration with the White House’s cost-cutting task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
Numerous health agency officials reported increased security measures as they arrived at work this morning. Managers have largely been kept unaware of the impending changes, other than a few alterations already disclosed within the department.
Kennedy mentioned earlier this week at the White House that the DOGE team, led by billionaire Elon Musk, had “identified significant waste in my department and HHS.”
“We have 40 communications departments. We have 40 procurement departments. We have 40 IT departments. And we have 40 HR departments. None of them are collaborating with each other. With Elon’s assistance, we are working to eliminate these redundancies,” Kennedy stated on Monday.
