President Donald Trump’s administration started implementing huge job cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday following the administration’s announcement last week that the department would be cutting roughly 10,000 jobs.
According to The Associated Press, some HHS staffers cut under the Trump administration were notified of the termination of their employment starting at roughly 5 a.m. on Tuesday. The outlet noted that other employees discovered that their jobs had been terminated after waiting in long lines outside multiple HHS offices.
The mass layoffs at HHS come after the department announced last week that roughly 10,000 jobs would be cut as part of the department’s restructuring process. In a Thursday press release, HHS explained that between the job cuts, early retirements, and the administration’s “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation program, the department would be “downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.”
On Tuesday morning, Kennedy released a video celebrating the swearing-in of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. In the video, Kennedy said that his department is going to “bring back the revered place of NIH in our history” and “restore FDA to its initial mission.”
Kennedy concluded his video, saying, “The revolution begins today!”
Kennedy later released a statement acknowledging the “difficult moment” facing HHS as tens of thousands of jobs are being cut as part of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the department.
“Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” Kennedy tweeted. “But the reality is clear: what we’ve been doing isn’t working.”
READ MORE: Video: 10,000 jobs cut at Health Department by Trump admin
Kennedy explained that Americans continue to become “sicker every year” despite “spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs.” The HHS secretary also said the health outcomes of Americans “continue to decline” despite the government agency’s budget growing by roughly 38% over the past four years.
“We must shift course. HHS needs to be recalibrated to emphasize prevention, not just sick care. These changes will not affect Medicare, Medicaid, or other essential health services,” Kennedy added. “This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again. It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”
In a statement obtained by Fox News, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf claimed on Tuesday that the “FDA as we’ve known it is finished” in light of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs. Warning that “history will see this is a huge mistake,” the former FDA commissioner claimed, “Most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed.”
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