Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is defending massive layoffs at his department, saying front-line workers will be spared while he streamlines administrative functions.
HHS is expected to slash 10,000 jobs and let another 10,000 go through buyouts and early retirements under President Trump’s plan to reduce the federal workforce. The changes will downsize HHS from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees
“We’re not cutting front-line workers, we’re cutting administrators, and we’re consolidating the agency to make it more efficient,” Mr. Kennedy said late Thursday in an interview on NewsNation’s show “CUOMO.”
Mr. Kennedy says the transition will be “painful” but will make HHS more efficient in the long run.
“We have over 100 comms departments. You have 40 procurement departments. We have dozens of IT departments, dozens of HR departments, none of them talk to each other,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do now is to streamline the agency,” he said, “to eliminate the redundancies and to focus the mission so that everybody who is at HHS is going to wake up every morning and say, ’What am I going to do today to Make America Healthy Again?’”
The cuts are part of a broader effort by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to reduce federal spending and payroll.
Democrats say the effort has been haphazard and will eat away at critical services.
Critics of the HHS cuts say they could undermine efforts to combat diseases in the U.S., despite Mr. Kennedy’s assurances.
There are concerns about bird flu outbreaks that decimated egg-laying flocks, and a measles outbreak in multiple states is raising alarm about Mr. Kennedy’s job cuts and history of vaccine skepticism.
“RFK Jr.’s absurd suggestion that hollowing out the department will somehow allow it to better protect Americans’ health defies common sense — and everything we have witnessed with our own eyes over the last two months,” Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, said.
As part of the overhaul, HHS will consolidate 28 divisions into 15, including a new Administration for a Healthy America, and it will cut the number of regional offices from 10 to five.
The restructuring will leave popular insurance programs such as Medicaid and Medicare intact, Mr. Kennedy said, while reorienting agency missions toward ending chronic illness and eradicating environmental toxins.
