WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services will reduce its staff by about 25%, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a video message on X on Thursday morning.

Kennedy said the staff reductions are intended to make the agency more efficient and effective as it strives to improve the nation’s health.

What You Need To Know

  • Health and Human Services will reduce its full-time staff from 82,000 to 62,000

  • Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made the announcement in a video posted to X Thursday morning

  • He said the staff reduction is intended to make the agency more efficient and effective to improve the health of the entire nation

  • The agency will also downsize its divisions and merge them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America

Citing Americans’ lower lifespans and higher rates of chronic disease compared with European countries, he described the agency he oversees as a “paradox” that spends more money yet yields worse results than other developed nations. 

“HHS is a sprawling bureaucracy and encompasses literally hundreds of departments, committees and other offices,” he said. “Every time a new issue arises, they tack on another committee. This leads to tremendous waste and duplication and, worst of all, a loss of any unified sense of mission. The resulting pandemonium has injured American health and damaged department morale.”

The cuts are part of the federal workforce reduction initiative spearheaded by the U.S. DOGE Service, which has implemented thousands of staff reductions at numerous federal agencies in the name of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Many DOGE cuts have been temporarily paused or reversed by federal judges.

Kennedy said the agency’s current staff of 82,000 will be reduced to 62,000. That includes 10,000 in layoffs as well as another 10,000 workers who are taking early retirements or buyout offers that were given to nearly all federal employees by the Trump administration.

He also pledged to “eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for Healthy America, or AHA.”

The goal of AHA, he said, is to save taxpayer money and radically improve service. 

It is unclear which departments and agencies will be eliminated or merged into the new organization. The HHS currently oversees 13 agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, which conducts health research; the Food and Drug Administration that ensures food and drug safety; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that prevents and controls diseases and public health emergencies.

Kennedy said his agency’s key service is Medicaid, which provides health care to 70 million low-income Americans, and Medicare, which provides health insurance to 65 million people age 65 and older, as well as the FDA and CDC.

Under the new consolidation plan, HHS will reduce its number of divisions from 28 to 15. 

Kennedy acknowledged that downsizing “will be a painful period for HHS” but said the agency will be “keenly focused on paring away excess administrators while increasing the number of scientists and frontline health providers.” 

The changes, he said, will save taxpayers nearly $2 billion annually. The HHS budget for the 2024 fiscal year included $1.7 trillion in mandatory costs and $144.3 billion in discretionary spending. Its 2025 fiscal year budget also includes $1.7 trillion in mandatory costs but reduces discretionary spending by almost $14 billion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.