Kennedy to slash 10,000 jobs in major overhaul of US health agencies

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to reshape federal public health agencies on Thursday, including cutting 10,000 employees and centralizing some functions of the FDA, CDC and others under his purview.

The job cuts include 3,500 at the Food and Drug Administration, 2,400 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,200 at the National Institutes of Health.

The latest job cuts, and about 10,000 recent voluntary departures, will reduce the number of full-time HHS employees to 62,000 from 82,000, the department said. “Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again,” he added.

Large government agencies like HHS sprawl over time and there is merit in reorganizing them, which has happened under both Democratic and Republican administrations, but this plan goes beyond that, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at non-profit KFF. “This is not just a reorganization of HHS. It is also a slashing of the federal workforce, which will ultimately affect government services,” said Levitt, a former senior adviser to the White House and HHS under President Bill Clinton.

The planned FDA job cuts would not affect inspectors or reviewers of drugs, medical devices, or food, HHS said. The terminations are likely to delay drug and medical device application reviews or cause missed deadlines, said Eva Temkin, a lawyer at Arnold & Porter who advises clients on drug and medical device applications.