The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will cut 10,000 full-time employees and restructure its divisions as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and reduce costs, the agency announced earlier today (27 March).
Under the plan, HHS will reduce its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees. The number of divisions will shrink from 28 to 15, and regional offices will be cut in half from 10 to five. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will see the largest reduction, with 3,500 jobs eliminated – about 19% of its workforce. However, HHS stated that these cuts will not affect drug, medical device, or food reviewers, nor will they impact inspectors.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will lose 2,400 employees, though the net reduction will be 1,400 after absorbing approximately 1,000 staff from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which is being transferred to the CDC. The department said the changes are meant to refocus the CDC on its core mission of responding to epidemics and outbreaks.
The layoffs come alongside the abrupt cancellation of $11.4bn in federal grants that had been funding state health programmes for infectious disease tracking, mental health services, and addiction treatment, as reported by NBC News on 25 March. State health departments were notified this week that the funds, originally allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic, were being terminated immediately, preventing any further spending.
At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1,200 positions will be cut through the centralisation of procurement, human resources, and communications across its 27 institutes and centres. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will lose 300 employees, with HHS saying the cuts will primarily target areas of duplication and will not affect Medicare and Medicaid services.
The downsizing, part of Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr ‘s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, aims to consolidate functions and refocus efforts on addressing chronic disease. As part of the restructuring, HHS will establish a new Administration for a Healthy America, merging several agencies, including the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
HHS said the changes will save approximately $1.8bn annually. The latest round of cuts follows the voluntary departure of about 10,000 employees in recent months for reasons like early retirement, bringing the total workforce reduction to 20,000 positions.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organisation with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” said Kennedy in the 27 March announcement.
