Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 24, 2025.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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.
Before he was confirmed, Kennedy pledged to end what he calls “corporate corruption” at federal health agencies and purge staff when he stepped into his role in the Trump administration.
He had said he would clear out “entire departments” at the FDA, saying that workers who stand in the way of approval of several controversial or dubious treatments should prepare to “pack their bags.”
Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, has already made early moves that could impact immunization policy and further dampen uptake in the U.S. at a time when childhood vaccination rates are falling.
He has said he will review the childhood vaccination schedule and is reportedly preparing to remove and replace members of external committees that advise the government on vaccine approvals and other key public health decisions, among other efforts.
His so-called Make America Healthy Again platform also pledges to end the chronic disease epidemic in children and adults. Kennedy has been vocal about making nutritious food, rather than drugs, central to that goal.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
