U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and close agencies

FILE – The Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in Washington, April 5, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press

In a major overhaul, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday. He faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.

“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said in the video, posted to social media.

Still, Kennedy said a “painful period” lies ahead for HHS, which is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country.

Overall, the department will downsize to 62,000 positions, losing nearly a quarter of its staff — 10,000 jobs through layoffs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Public health experts, doctors, current and former HHS workers and congressional Democrats quickly panned Kennedy’s plans, warning they could have untold consequences for millions of people.

“These staff cuts endanger public health and food safety,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, in a statement. “They raise serious concerns that the administration’s pledge to make Americans healthy again could become nothing more than an empty promise.”

But Kennedy, in announcing the restructuring, said HHS failed to improve Americans’ lifespans and not doing enough to drive down chronic disease and cancer rates.

“All of that money,” Kennedy said of the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget, “has failed to improve the health of Americans.”

Cancer death rates have dropped 34% over the past two decades, translating to 4.5 million deaths avoided, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s largely due to smoking cessation, the development of better treatments — many funded by the National Institutes of Health, including groundbreaking immunotherapy — and earlier detection.

The reorganization plan also underscores Kennedy’s push to take more control of the public health agencies — the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which have traditionally operated with a level of autonomy from the health secretary. Under the plan, external communications, procurement, information technology and human resources will be centralized under HHS.

HHS on Thursday provided a breakdown of some of the cuts.

__ 3,500 jobs at the FDA, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.

__ 2,400 jobs at the CDC, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide.

__ 1,200 jobs at the NIH, the world’s leading public health research arm.

__ 300 jobs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.

HHS said it anticipates the changes will save $1.8 billion per year.

Union leaders for CDC workers in Atlanta said they received notice from HHS on Thursday morning that reductions will focus on administrative positions including human resources, finance, procurement and information technology.

At CMS, where cuts focus on workers who troubleshoot problems that arise for Medicare beneficiaries and Affordable Care Act enrollees, the result will be the “lowest customer service standards” for thousands of cases, said Jeffrey Grant, a former deputy director at the agency who resigned last month.

Beyond losing workers, Kennedy said he will shut down entire agencies. Several will be folded into a new Administration for a Healthy America, he said.

Those include the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees and provides funding for hundreds of community health centers around the country, as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which funds clinics and oversees the national 988 hotline. Both agencies pump billions of dollars into on-the-ground work in local communities.

The Administration for Healthy America will focus on maternal and child health, environmental health and HIV/AIDS work, HHS said.

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, created by a law signed by then-Republican President George W. Bush and responsible for maintaining the national stockpile that was quickly drained during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be  moved into the CDC.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said the ramifications of Kennedy’s plans for HHS are unclear.

“We’ll just wait and see what it is, and then we’ll go back and try to fix if there is something broken,” Rounds said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken so far.”

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington warned that the fallout is clear.

“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier,” Murray said in a statement. “It’ll just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures.”

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