The Trump administration announced Thursday it will eliminate 10,000 jobs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a sweeping reorganization effort. This reduction follows earlier buyout offers of up to $25,000 extended to employees in March, collectively shrinking the agency from approximately 82,000 to 62,000 workers.
"We're going to do more with less," Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, acknowledging that it would be "a painful period for HHS." The cuts are scheduled to take effect May 27, according to notification emails sent to union leaders.
Major Health Agencies Face Significant Staffing Reductions
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will lose approximately 3,500 employees, including workers responsible for ensuring food and medicine safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will see a reduction of about 2,400 staff members, with its mission refocused on "preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks," according to an HHS fact sheet.
Other significant cuts include:
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): 1,200 positions eliminated
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: 300 jobs cut
The restructuring will consolidate HHS from 28 divisions to 15, and merge ten regional offices into five. According to the administration, the cuts primarily target administrative positions in human resources, information technology, procurement, and finance.
New Division Created Amid Restructuring
Kennedy announced the creation of a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America. According to the HHS fact sheet, this new entity will improve coordination of chronic care and disease prevention programs and "harmonize" health resources for low-income Americans.
"We're going to consolidate all of these departments and make them accountable to you, the American taxpayer and the American patient," Kennedy stated. "These goals will honor the aspirations of the vast majority of existing HHS employees who actually yearn to make America healthy."
Justification for Departmental Overhaul
In a YouTube video explaining the changes, Kennedy claimed that when he assumed leadership of HHS, he found that "over half of our employees don't even come to work." He described an agency with more than 100 communications offices, over 40 IT departments, dozens of procurement offices, and nine human resources departments.
"In many cases, they don't even talk to each other," Kennedy said. "They're mainly operating in silos. Sometimes these subagencies work at cross-purposes with each other."
Critics Warn of Public Health Consequences
The restructuring has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and public health experts who warn about potential impacts on critical health services during ongoing public health challenges.
"In the middle of worsening nationwide outbreaks of bird flu and measles, not to mention a fentanyl epidemic, Trump is wrecking vital health agencies with the precision of a bull in a china shop," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
Dr. Anand Parekh, an Obama administration health official now serving as chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, expressed concern about narrowing the CDC's focus: "Converting CDC to an agency solely focused on infectious diseases takes us back to 1948 without realizing that in 2025, the leading causes of death are noncommunicable disease."
Concerns About Regulatory Oversight
Labor representatives and former officials have raised alarms about the FDA's continued ability to protect public health with significantly reduced staffing.
"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, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 18,500 HHS staffers.
Xavier Becerra, who served as health secretary under President Joe Biden, described the restructuring as having "the makings of a man-made disaster" in social media comments.
The changes represent one of the most significant reorganizations of the federal health infrastructure in decades, occurring as the department continues to manage responses to various public health challenges including measles outbreaks in multiple states.
