Robert F. Kennedy, the head of the department’s health and human companies, has unveiled a comprehensive plan to reduce the organization’s size, cutting up about 10,000 full-time workers and closing five of its ten local agencies. The agency’s workforce has decreased to 62, 000 national health workers, or 25 %, thanks to the volunteer departure of another 10, 000 people since President Trump’s election, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In a video that was posted on X, Kennedy stated,” We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of ministries and authorities while preserving their main work,” and that is how he planned to go about doing so. Centralizing communications, sourcing, people resources, information technologies, and policy preparing, which are already distributed across different divisions, is a crucial component of the reorganization.
This restructuring will have a significant impact on how major health departments within HHS, including the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ), operate. These organizations have previously had some autonomy from the HHS Secretary and the White House.
Kennedy, a frequent critic of HHS, has expressed fears about how the agency handled the COVID-19 epidemic and its strategy to vaccines. He cautioned FDA workers to “pack your bags” in a previous social media post. He cited rising levels of chronic disease and cancer as information, and has reaffirmed his conviction that the organization has grown ineffective.
Kennedy is renaming the Administration for a Healthy America as part of the reform. A second division devoted to preventing serious diseases and providing resources for low-income Americans will be created from the various offices that are focused on addiction, harmful substances, and occupational safety.
Kennedy remarked,” The firm has been ineffective as a whole.” As our ministry has grown, the rate of severe disease and cancers significantly increased.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the government’s plan to cut 10, 000 work will have an impact on a number of important organizations, including:
- 3 500 people make up the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) workforce, or 19 %.
- 2 400 workers, or 18 % of the workforce, are employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ).
- National Institutes of Health ( NIH): 1,200 employees ( 6 % of total )
- 300 employees, or 4 % of the workforce, are Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ).
HHS leaders insist that non-essential health companies will remain intact. For example, the CDC may be “returning to its core vision” of epidemic preparedness and answer, with no work reductions in viral disease groups. Similar to this, the FDA’s cuts won’t have an impact on food, medical device, or drug inspectors or reviewers.
