Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday that 10,000 full-time jobs from the Cabinet department will be getting cut.
According to USA Today, this marks a dramatic reduction in staff and will result in half of its regional offices being closed.
The overhaul is part of the Trump administration’s goal to reduce the federal workforce. The recent jobs cuts along with HHS employees who have already accepted President Donald Trump’s buyout offers and other fired employees total 20,000 employees, with numbers being reduced from 82,000 full time staff to 62,000.
The Department of Health and Human Services is also being directed to consolidate 28 of the agency’s divisions into 15 new divisions as part of Kennedy’s agenda to “Make America Healthy Again,” and has further created a new Administration for a Healthy America.
The department also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. There are plans to close five of 10 regional offices, after HHS officials reportedly said the restructuring will keep Medicare, Medicaid and other health services intact.
USA Today further reported that the agency said the new priority of “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”
“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.”
