HHS announces 10,000 additional job cuts, restructuring aligned with DOGE
The Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to cut an additional 10,000 full-time workers and consolidate its divisions as part of President Donald Trump’s DOGE efforts.
In a statement Thursday, the department said it would also “streamline” department functions by reducing the number of divisions from 28 to 15 — which includes the addition of a new Administration for a Healthy America — and slashing the number of regional offices in half, from 10 to five. HHS cited “redundant units” as its motive for cutting the divisions.
The new jobs cuts add to existing departures from early retirements to those that accepted a deferred resignation offer known as “Fork in the Road.” When taken together, they bring the total size of the department from 82,000 full-time workers down to 62,000, according to the agency.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
The announcement comes as the Trump administration has launched rapid downsizing and restructuring of the federal workforce via its Department of Government Efficiency group. In an executive order last month, which HHS pointed to as the reason for the restructuring, Trump called for reducing “bloat” and “insularity” in the government and ordered agencies to prepare for large-scale reductions in force.
Simultaneously, the administration also ordered thousands of probationary workers to be fired, though those terminations have been reversed, for now, by rulings from two federal judges. That includes HHS. According to filings in federal court, the department told 3,248 of its employees that they were going to be fired, but reinstated those workers or extended their administrative leave following a U.S. district court ruling in Maryland.
According to the Thursday statement from HHS on the restructure, its new Administration for a Healthy America will centralize several “core functions,” including IT, policy, procurement and human resources. But it wasn’t immediately clear where that leaves a couple of key technology components.
The release did not mention the Assistant Secretary for Administration (AHA), which the Office of the Chief Information Officer is nested under. It also didn’t mention the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP/ONC), which was restructured during the Biden administration to include the department’s chief technology, artificial intelligence, and data roles.
The release, however, specifically noted that the AHA will absorb divisions such as Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
HHS didn’t immediately respond to FedScoop’s request for comment on what the changes meant for the ASTP/ONC.
In response to the announcement Thursday, National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald called the plan “disastrous” and said that if the 10,000 cuts move forward “the impact to public health services across the country will be devastating.”
Greenwald also disclosed that the agency has notified NTEU, which represents HHS workers across multiple components, that the reduction in force is expected to take effect May 27.
“HHS workers have dedicated their careers to serving the American people, and sending any of them to the unemployment lines is nothing short of an intentional effort to weaken government and destroy the world’s finest public health system,” Greenwald said.
