RFK Jr. plans 10,000 HHS job cuts

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to slash 10,000 full-time employees across different departments, as he works to reshape the nation’s federal health agencies, an HHS spokesman confirmed Thursday.

Those job cuts are in addition to about 10,000 employees who opted to leave HHS since President Donald Trump took office, through voluntary separation offers. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the cuts.

HHS is a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees vaccines and other medicines, scientific research, public health infrastructure, pandemic preparedness and food and tobacco products. The department also manages government-funded health care for millions of Americans – including seniors, disabled people and lower-income patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act’s markets.

If the department fully implements the job cuts, it will have shed about a quarter a federal health workers, including the voluntary exits, the Journal reported. That would shrink the department’s workforce to 62,000 employees.

HHS will also drop five of its 10 regional offices, but essential health services won’t be affected, according to the Journal.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.