RFK Jr. Announces 10,000 Job Cuts at US Department of Health and Services
TL/DR –
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has started a plan to cut 10,000 jobs, beginning with mass layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. These cuts are part of President Trump and Elon Musk’s larger strategy to reduce staffing levels in federal departments, which has already resulted in the loss of over 100,000 federal jobs in the last two months. The HHS also plans to close its agencies focused on older adults and people with disabilities as well as its offices handling HIV and minority health.
US Health Department to Cut 10,000 Jobs and Close Half its Regional Offices
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced cutting about 10,000 full-time jobs and closing half of its regional offices. Layoffs began Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, part of a plan to cut 10,000 jobs at the Department.
Overall, more than 100,000 federal workers have been laid off in past two months as part of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk‘s efforts to reduce staffing levels in federal departments and agencies. Thousands more are expected as more agencies implement their reduction in force (RIF) plans.
Following these layoffs and early retirement offers, the total Health and Human Services workforce is expected to drop from 82,000 to 62,000 people. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the layoffs are part of an effort to save money for taxpayers.
The National Institutes of Health program which has analyzed the genes of about 150,000 volunteers survived the layoffs, but the 20 people who do public communications for it have been placed on leave as a preliminary step toward being laid off.
Anti-tobacco groups criticized the removal of Brian King, who headed the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco center since 2022. King was offered a position at Indian Health Services, and Yolonda C. Richardson, president and CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, labeled this as “deeply irresponsible”.
Robert Califf, a former FDA commissioner during the Obama administration, said in a post on LinkedIn that the agency “as we’ve known it is finished,” and he predicted the loss of institutional knowledge would be “a huge mistake.”
The layoffs at the FDA’s tobacco center are “deeply irresponsible” and will slow efforts to “protect kids and save lives from tobacco use,” said Yolonda C. Richardson, president and CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-tobacco group.
Ahead of the layoffs, Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, resigned. In his resignation, Marks criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned the effectiveness of vaccines for years and promoted debunked claims that certain vaccines are linked to autism.
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