Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Thursday that the Trump administration is cutting roughly 10,000 jobs at the department. The job cuts are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to restructure HHS and “Make America Healthy Again.”
In a Thursday press release, HHS said that the restructuring of the department will accomplish “multiple goals without impacting critical services.” According to the press release, the latest job cuts will save U.S. taxpayers roughly $1.8 billion a year.
HHS stated, “When combined with HHS’ other efforts, including early retirement and Fork in the Road, the restructuring results in a total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.”
In a video explaining the upcoming changes to HHS, Kennedy explained that despite the HHS budget increasing by roughly 38% under the Biden-Harris administration and the department’s staffing increasing by roughly 17%, the “rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically.”
“We have the sickest nation in the world, and we have the highest rate of chronic disease,” the HHS secretary added.
In Thursday’s press release, Kennedy said that while the majority of the department’s staff are “dedicated and competent civil servants,” bureaucracies such as HHS have a tendency to “become wasteful and inefficient.”
“This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves,” Kennedy said. “That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.”
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Kennedy explained that the job cuts and restructuring process at HHS will not only reduce “bureaucratic sprawl” but will allow the department to focus on its “core mission” to help reverse the “chronic disease epidemic” in the United States. He added, “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
As part of the restructuring process, Kennedy said the Trump administration is planning to eliminate “an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies” and will merge various HHS departments and agencies.
According to Thursday’s press release, HHS is planning to eliminate “redundant units” and reduce 28 divisions into a consolidated 15 divisions. The department is also planning to close five of its 10 regional offices.
In Thursday’s video, Kennedy explained that the process of streamlining HHS is “part of a shift to new priorities, especially ending the chronic disease epidemic, with clean water, safe food, effective medicine, good science, radical transparency, and a health environment.”
Kenned added, “I think most Americans would agree with me that throwing more money at healthcare isn’t gonna solve the problem, or it would have solved it already.” The HHS secretary concluded that the department’s “overhaul” will bring improvements to the health of the “entire nation” and will “Make America Healthy Again.”
