The Department of Health and Human Services will undergo a massive restructuring program billed as streamlining the sprawling department. This includes downsizing 20,000 full-time employees as part of President Donald Trump‘s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
On Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that 28 “alphabet soup” sub-agencies under his domain would be consolidated into 15 new divisions. The agency estimates that the restructuring will save $1.8 billion annually.
Kennedy said in a video message on X that the plan would “imbue the agency with a clear sense of mission to radically improve the health of Americans and to improve agency morale.”
“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less. No American is going to be left behind,” he said
The restructuring plan calls for a reduction of 10,000 full-time employees, but when combined with other federal workforce reduction efforts led by Elon Musk, HHS estimates that the changes will shrink the agency headcount from 82,000 employees to only 62,000.
The initiative’s main feature is the creation of the Administration for a Healthy America, designed to centralize the department’s core functions, from human resources and information technology to external affairs.
Kennedy said in his video address that the siloed structure of independent sub-agencies under the HHS umbrella allowed for the creation of over 100 separate communications offices, more than 40 information technology departments, and nine human resource offices.
AHA will merge multiple agencies, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, into a singular entity.
“This centralization will improve coordination of health resources for low-income Americans and will focus on areas including, Primary Care, Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, HIV/AIDS, and Workforce development,” the agency said in a press release about the shake-up.
The restructuring program will also place the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response under the direct control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy said that the key services of Medicare, Medicaid, and Food and Drug Administration safety oversight will “enter a new era of responsiveness and effectiveness,” but the overhaul will not affect the provision of critical programs.
“Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” Kennedy said. “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.”
Until now, Kennedy’s efforts to reinvigorate HHS have faced logistical challenges.
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For example, thousands of FDA employees returned to in-person work last week following Kennedy’s orders, only to be met with overflowing parking lots, overwhelmed security lines, and a lack of office space and other basic supplies.
Earlier this month, about 180 CDC employees who were terminated as part of workforce reduction efforts were ultimately called back to work. Similar flip-flops were made over medical device oversight at the FDA and the federal response to bird flu in the Agriculture Department.
