Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced a major overhaul of the U.S. Health and Human Services department (HHS).
In a statement, the HHS said it would save US$1.8 billion and lose 20,000 employees, half of whom are being let go.
The job cuts come as part of President Donald Trump’s promise to limit federal government spending.
Health experts have raised concerns the reduction in workers will harm health initiatives.
Reductions
Since his inauguration, Trump has sought to cut federal government spending, mainly by firing employees or offering redundancies.
Last week, the White House began reviewing plans for another round of spending cuts submitted by the heads of each government department.
As part of Kennedy’s push to “Make America Healthy Again”, the health secretary has announced significant cuts to his department.
Cuts
According to a statement, 20,000 HHS employees will leave. Half will be fired, while the remaining half are either retiring or taking a redundancy.
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This includes 3,500 Food and Drug Administration employees, 2,400 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health.
To accommodate the cuts, the CDC will focus solely on “epidemics and outbreaks”. Currently, the CDC focuses on a wide range of diseases and related issues, including smoking, maternal health, and vaccine distribution.
Kennedy, a vocal vaccine skeptic, also reduced the HHS’s 28 divisions to 15, and created the Administration for a Healthy America to deal with addiction, toxic substances, and occupational safety.
Five of the ten regional HHS offices will be closed down.
Kennedy says the changes largely centralise administration functions, such as IT and human resources.
The changes will come into effect on May 27.
Effects
Kennedy said the department will do “a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” saying HHS’s $1.7 trillion budget has failed to improve Americans’ health.
At the moment, the CDC is overseeing the containment of an increase in measles cases and a bird flu outbreak. Experts have raised concerns the cuts may impact the CDC’s ability to manage these.
A pharmaceutical lawyer quoted by Reuters said FDA cuts would likely delay medical device and drug approvals.
