HHS Announces Sweeping Workforce Reduction and Organizational Overhaul

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will restructure with several drastic steps including firing 10,000 employees and closing half of its regional offices. On Thursday Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an operational shift for HHS in restructuring plans.

Through both voluntary departures and new job cuts HHS will decrease its full-time staff count from 82,000 to 62,000 employees. Through his words Kennedy showed this change involves more than job cuts because the HHS realigns its core duties and new disease fight targets.

Key impacts of the restructuring include:

• FDA needs to reduce its staff by 3,500 employees.
• 2,400 staff reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• 1,200 employee reductions across the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Minimal cuts of about 300 positions at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The department combines 28 current units into 15 new divisions and introduces the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) department. The system brings related departments overseeing drug addiction control basic substance safety and work hazards under one roof in the new central office.

The Federal Government under President Donald Trump and investor Elon Musk supports DOGE project efforts to lower departmental bureaucracy. The HHS organization changes become part of the overall federal government streamlining push.

Kennedy designed FDA budget cuts to protect inspectors from changes who review vital healthcare products.