The US Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, has announced it’s cutting 10,000 full-time employees across health agencies.
The Wall Street Journal, citing documents, reports the Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reducing about 10,000 full-time jobs and closing regional offices.
According to the report, Kennedy is set to announce the planned changes on Thursday.
He currently oversees multiple high-profile agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the WSJ report, the job cuts will be spread out across departments tasked with responding to disease outbreaks, approving new drugs, providing insurance for the poorest Americans and more.
The development comes after nearly 10,000 employees voluntarily opted to leave the department.
The voluntary departures and the latest job cuts, if fully implemented, would further shrink the department to 62,000 federal health workers.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the
President Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, has been gutting agencies as part of an effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
