The Trump administration plans to cut about 10,000 full-time employees from the Department of Health and Human Services, the department announced Thursday, cutting around a tenth of the staff at the nation’s federal health agencies.
“When combined with HHS’ other efforts, including early retirement and Fork in the Road, the restructuring results in a total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees,” the department said in a release, estimating that taxpayers would save $1.8 billion from the changes.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy will cut 3,500 jobs from the Food and Drug Administration and 2,400 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No FDA inspectors or CDC infectious diseases personnel are getting cut, one U.S. official said.
The administration is also cutting 1,200 jobs from the National Institutes of Health and 300 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health officials had been bracing for steep cuts to be announced this week, as part of the sweeping reorganization architected with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting task force.
Several health agency officials said they had seen stepped up security measures coming into work this morning. Managers have largely been in the dark about the changes, officials have said, aside from a handful of changes already announced within the department.
Kennedy said earlier this week at the White House that the DOGE team headed by billionaire Elon Musk had “identified extraordinary waste in my department and HHS.”
“We have 40 comms departments. We have 40 procurement departments. We have 40 IT departments. And we have 40 HR. None of them talking to each other. We are with Elon’s help eliminating the redundancies.” Kennedy said Monday.
