The HHS on Thursday announced a sweeping reorganization that includes firing 10,000 full-time employees, in a significant downsizing for a department that responds to disease outbreaks, provides health insurance to 160 million Americans, ensures the safety of drugs and medical devices and more.
The planned cuts are in addition to the roughly 10,000 employees who have already exited the department since President Donald Trump assumed office through voluntary buyouts or dismissals.
Previously, the HHS employed 82,000 people.
The goal of the reorganization is to centralize the HHS’ operational functions, like policy planning, communications and human resources, Trump administration officials said in the announcement.
It also coincides with a massive push from the president and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the cost-cutting initiative spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk, to reshape the government by drastically cutting the size of the federal workforce and freezing billions of dollars in funds.
The initiative, ostensibly meant to make the government more efficient, has hampered efforts to improve medical outcomes, including maternal health and long COVID, caused biomedical research to freeze in its tracks, eroded disease monitoring programs and weakened oversight of fraud and abuse in federal healthcare programs, according to impacted employees.
Now, the Trump administration is trimming the HHS further.
The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates drugs and medical devices and most foods, is losing 3,500 jobs, according to a fact sheet on the cuts. The downsizing won’t affect safety inspectors, the agency said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which works to control the spread of infectious diseases, is losing 2,400 jobs. The cuts will help the CDC return “to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks,” the fact sheet says.
The National Institutes of Health, the primary federal agency for biomedical and public health research, is losing 1,200 employees.
The CMS, which manages Medicare and Medicaid, will lose roughly 300 jobs.
The cuts — which follow pledges from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to cull bureaucracy at the HHS — should save taxpayers $1.8 billion each year, the department said.
As part of the reorganization, the HHS will be cut from 28 divisions to 15. The department’s 10 regional offices will be reduced to five.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This Department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
The new HHS will also be more tightly aligned to Kennedy’s priorities, including a focus on holistic health.
Kennedy is creating a new agency called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, to consolidate the HHS’ work in primary care, maternal health, environmental health and more.
The AHA will combine the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Health Resources and Services Adminsitration, 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, according to the announcement.
The HHS is also merging the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation into the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response will move into the CDC as part of the reorganization.
Other programs that support older adults and people with disabilities will fold into other HHS agencies, including the CMS.
The HHS said the reorganization will not impact Medicare and Medicaid services. And “no additional cuts are currently planned,” the fact sheet on the restructuring says.
Across the federal government, there is no official figure available for the total number of people who have accepted buyout offers or been fired to date. But it could be in the hundreds of thousands, according to media reports. Prior to DOGE’s efforts there were 2.4 million people total in the civilian federal workforce.
The Trump administration fired thousands of probationary employees earlier this year, before many were rehired or placed on paid administrative leave after courts ruled that their dismissals were illegal mid-March.
The Trump administration has appealed the rulings and moved to increase the White House’s power to remove federal employees.
This is a developing story.
Are you a federal healthcare worker impacted by the reorganization? Reach out to Rebecca Pifer at [email protected] or over Signal @rpifer.95.
