RFK Jr. Plans 10,000 Job Cuts in Major Restructuring of Health Department

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reshaping the nation’s health agencies and closing regional offices.

Kennedy on Thursday said the agency would ax 10,000 full-time employees spread across agencies tasked with responding to disease outbreaks, approving new drugs, providing insurance for the poorest Americans and more. The cuts are in addition to roughly 10,000 employees who chose to leave the department through voluntary separation offers since President Trump took office, according to the department.

Together, the cuts would eliminate about one-quarter of a workforce that would shrink to 62,000. The department would lose five of its 10 regional offices. HHS said essential health services wouldn’t be affected.

“We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core function,” Kennedy said in a video posted on X.

HHS workers could learn as soon as Friday whether they are let go, according to a notification sent to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many of them.

“The administration’s claims that such deep cuts to the Food and Drug Administration and other critical HHS offices won’t be harmful are preposterous,” said Doreen Greenwald, the union’s national president.

The plan would centralize the department’s communications, procurement, human resources, information technology and policy planning—work currently distributed throughout the department’s divisions and even their branches. Doing so would reshape how health agencies function.

In the past, leaders of top health agencies within HHS—such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and FDA—considered themselves somewhat independent from the White House and even the health secretary.

Kennedy came into office as a frequent critic of the health department he was tasked to lead, criticizing its Covid-19 performance and its support of vaccines. In a social-media post in the fall, he warned FDA employees to “pack your bags.”

The plans made public Thursday appear to be within the secretary’s power, legal experts consulted by the Journal said, but some details might need Congressional approval. A similar centralization effort during the George W. Bush administration largely failed, people familiar with the department said.

“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at our pre-eminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier—it’ll just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.).

As part of the reorganization, Kennedy is creating a new subdivision called the Administration for a Healthy America, combining offices in HHS that address addiction, toxic substances and occupational safety among others into one focused on chronic-disease prevention programs and health resources for low-income Americans.

“The agency has been inefficient as a whole,” Kennedy said in the X video. “The rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown.”

HHS is the latest department Trump administration has targeted for cuts. Efforts by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have resulted in thousands of layoffs across the federal government. Several lawsuits have challenged the administration’s ability to make such cuts.

As part of the 10,000 workers who will be let go, according to HHS documents, the Trump administration plans to cut:

• 3,500 full-time employees from the FDA—or about 19% of the agency’s workforce

• 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce

• 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce

• 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce

The CDC will refocus on preparing for and responding to epidemics, according to HHS documents. The CDC cuts wouldn’t come from divisions focused on infectious disease, an HHS official said. Republicans have said the CDC strayed from its mission by researching topics such as the health impacts of gun violence.

The documents said the cuts wouldn’t affect the FDA’s inspectors or drug, medical device or food reviewers. Many FDA probationary workers in the medical devices division were rehired a week after they were cut last month.

“I am interested in HHS working better, such as lifesaving drug approval more rapidly, and Medicare service improved. I look forward to hearing how this reorganization furthers these goals,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.).

Under the new plan, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which oversees the Strategic National Stockpile and much of the nation’s pandemic preparedness planning, would move under the CDC, HHS said. Currently it is its own operating division in HHS.

Trump’s current director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, who is working with DOGE to cull the federal workforce, singled out the CDC in a panel discussion in September at Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

“Look at CDC,” Vought said, according to a recording posted online. “Most of them don’t even do public health. They are researchers that publish material. Who knows if it’s even relevant or not? They even themselves had to admit they were a failure in the public-health crisis that comes once in a generation.”