HHS to cut 10,000 more jobs across HHS, including 3,500 from FDA

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to terminate another 10,000 workers, including 3,500 from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Despite the additional cuts, which follow earlier layoffs and other efforts to reduce headcount, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. promised the department will continue to fulfill its duties.

Kennedy announced the job cuts and major restructuring of the department in a video posted to social media websites, including X. He said that since taking the helm at HHS, he’s discovered that the department is inefficient and has failed to improve public health, despite its growth and generally competent staff. He described HHS as a sprawling bureaucracy that caused tremendous waste and duplication and said job cuts and restructuring would make it more efficient.

“As part of President Trump's [Department of Government Efficiency] DOGE workforce reduction initiative, we're going to streamline HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective,” said Kennedy. “We're going to imbue the agency with a clear sense of mission to radically improve the health of Americans and improve agency morale.”

“The entire federal workforce is downsizing now, so this will be a painful period for HHS as we downsize from around 82,000 full-time employees to around 62,000,” he added. “But we're keenly focused on paring away excess administrators while increasing the number of scientists and frontline health providers so that we can do a better job for the American people.”

HHS issued a press release stating that part of the plan is to make significant structural changes, including consolidating 28 divisions into 15, which includes a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). The new division would centralize human resources, information technology, procurement, external affairs, and policy efforts.

HHS also published a fact sheet with details about the workforce reduction and restructuring. It states that the workforce reduction at FDA will not affect drug, medical device or food reviewers, or inspectors.

“The consolidation and cuts are designed not only to save money, but to make the organization more efficient and more responsive to Americans’ needs, and to implement the Make America Healthy Again goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic,” said HHS. “No additional cuts are currently planned, but the Department will continue to look for further ways to streamline its operations and agencies.”

Since Trump took office, his administration has implemented a massive reduction in force (RIF) effort, which has included offering workers deferred resignation, early retirement, a $25,000 buyout incentive, and laying off thousands of probationary staff – only to rehire hundreds of them. According to HHS, almost 10,000 HHS employees have already left the agency as part of those efforts. The department is looking to shed about 20,000 employees in total.

Kennedy said many of the divisions and offices within HHS work in silos and don’t talk to each other, and operate as territorial “fiefdoms,” and made claims of offices hoarding medical data and selling the information to each other. He also criticized some of them for working on behalf of regulated industries instead of the American public.

“A few isolated divisions are neglecting public health altogether and seem only accountable to the industries that they're supposed to be regulating,” said Kennedy. “In one case, defiant bureaucrats impeded the secretary's office from accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the dangers of certain drugs and medical interventions.”

Focus asked HHS for clarification on which divisions Kennedy was talking referring to, among other questions, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

According to HHS, the job cuts and restructuring of HHS are intended to save taxpayers about $1.8B annually and improve the quality of service. Kennedy, however, guaranteed the cuts would not degrade the department's ability to fulfill its mission.

“I want to promise you now that we are going to do more with less,” he said. “No American is going to be left behind.”

Following the announcement, acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner sent an email to staff that has been reviewed by Focus. In the email, the soon-to-be principal deputy commissioner threw her support behind Kennedy’s decision to cut the agency’s workforce while being optimistic about the coming changes.

“In this time of rapid transition and great promise, I asked that you join me in reflection on the adage – the only constant is change,” said Brenner. “Change brings both challenges and opportunities, at both the individual and organizational levels.”

“I recognize the changes for HHS and the FDA may be challenging for some employees, who we value as both colleagues and friends,” she added. “As we chart our course into the future, I ask for your patience, grace, and sanguinity with both the process and with each other.”

Focus spoke to several FDA employees, who have been granted anonymity due to fear of professional reprisal, who said the news has created significant anxiety at the agency about whether they will keep their jobs.

“Everyone’s been talking about it, and no one knows what it actually means,” said one source. “People are legit worried.”

One source, who works as a medical product reviewer, said that review staff felt more protected than others in this instance, but they, too, are not sure if they’ll be able to keep their jobs.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents HHS employees, issued a statement describing the plan as “disastrous” and said it would a have “devastating” impact on public health services across the US.

“The American people do not support indiscriminate cuts curtailing or eliminating local health programs, endangering the health and safety of children and families, and inflicting real economic harm in small towns and big cities across the country,” said Greenwald. “The administration’s claims that such deep cuts to the Food and Drug Administration and other critical HHS offices won’t be harmful are preposterous.”

“NTEU will pursue every opportunity to fight back on behalf of these dedicated civil servants and the agency’s overall mission,” she added. “HHS workers have dedicated their careers to serving the American people, and sending any of them to the unemployment lines is nothing short of an intentional effort to weaken government and destroy the world’s finest public health system.”

Focus reviewed an email NTEU sent to HHS staff in which the organization asked for an immediate briefing with the administration and demanded to bargain the RIF. It has also reminded HHS that legally and contractually, the department cannot implement the RIF until it has concluded bargaining.

“This senseless and destructive RIF would not only harm any potentially impacted employees, it would also deprive the American people of the vital services our members – and all experienced and talented civil servants – provide for them every day,” said NTEU. “We will fight back against this RIF through every available avenue.”

The organization noted that it has already filed a lawsuit against the HHS RIF, arguing that the administration’s efforts are illegal attempts to destroy congressionally created federal agencies.

Focus has also reviewed an email sent to federal unions in which Thomas Nagy, HHS deputy assistant secretary for human resources, stated that the department is looking to fire between 8,000 and 10,000 workers and is developing a list of competitive areas. He also said employees who will be fired as part of the RIF may expect notices as early as 28 March.

"If a collective bargaining agreement with HHS requires notice of competitive areas to a union, HHS will notify that union as soon as possible after the competitive areas are finalized," said Nagy.

AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker issued a statement agreeing with Kennedy's goal to ensure HHS is more efficient and accountable.

“My understanding is that FDA experts whose entire mission is to improve and not stand in the way of patient access to innovative medtech will not be affected. This is good news,” he said. “Looking forward, our view is that any reduction in force should be accompanied by policy and regulatory improvements that encourage innovation in medtech.”

Steven Grossman, an FDA regulatory consultant and author of FDA Matters, took a more wait-and-see approach to the news.

“Logically, the policy, compliance, data collection, and regulatory staff are most at risk, as well as those whose jobs might be centralized at HHS,” he said in a statement. “However, this is a reaction to the size of the RIF and the unknown size and distribution of the buy-out. We won’t know for certain until we see the HHS plan.”

HHS to cut 10,000 more jobs across HHS, including 3,500 from FDA

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