Officials across the Department of Health and Human Services agency said they are preparing for the steep layoffs as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy and his team’s decision on changes in department makeup and organization is expected to be within a week or two, with several senior health officials being told. An official said the assistants had begun drafting the restructuring announcement.
The department did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the official head of the White House Ministry of Government Efficiency team, Amy Gleasonseveral other members of Doge are HHS employees. Some are closely related to these plans, including former insurance executive Brad Smith, who was the first highest Medicare and Medicaid official during the Trump administration.
The White House’s restructuring and expected cuts to “reduce strong plan” programs come after many workers have been fired or through other moves in health institutions across the country. An earlier attempt Clear thousands Probation workersend the scholarship program and terminate the contractor agreement.
This is our latest knowledge on reorganization of several agencies within the HHS, based on conversations with more than a dozen health officials who spoke publicly without authorization.
Medical research and quality institutions
HHS and Doge officials have cut unprecedented labor force for some senior leaders. In one agency within the HHS, the Healthcare Research and Quality Agency told leaders on March 11 that up to 90% of employees are expected to be laid off.
The agency has approximately 300 employees, and many are responsible for collecting and analyzing some of the most widely cited indicators of health care, including decades-old data sets economists and health policy researchers rely on to track hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
AHRQ is also committed to many Congress-funded programs to address safety and health care accidents for patients, such as programs designed to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
A health official told CBS News that the current employee has about 45 highly skilled economists and statisticians. Overall, this is a layoff for six employees. The six people willing to stay under these conditions are not exactly the best. ”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some managers have been told to cut cuts from the department, which could result in 30% of employees of Atlanta-based institutions being released.
Federal records show that at the end of the last fiscal year, the CDC employed nearly 12,820 people.
“Cutting 30% cuts will be devastating. We are already understaffed in many key areas, and the staff who have barely held it together are already at all stages of burnout,” a CDC official said.
Some of these cuts may be achieved through employees who leave voluntarily. Two officials said discount The entire HHS this month. It is not clear how many workers have applied for both.
Others can do so by rescheduling the functions of the agency. A recommendation that officials weigh will shift the CDC’s HIV prevention efforts elsewhere in the department.
Food and Drug Administration
Unlike other health agencies, some of the FDA worker groups have been told they are not eligible for HHS Buyout offer.
These include reviewers of new drug applications, whose salaries are mainly funded by drugmakers when seeking approval rather than taxpayers.
Others in the agency were told to prepare for layoffs. The FDA manager told employees internally that they are not in the cycle in terms of the scale and goals of the cuts.
One official said Dock officials have visited the agency’s Maryland headquarters several times. Another said Dooger officials have been asking questions about the FDA lab this week.
Several FDA employees said they hope to achieve some cuts through what the agency calls “growing brain loss,” which has been struggling with the challenging transition to return, which is unlikely to ease anytime soon. One employee said the agency is processing hundreds of retirement applications.
Staff say the FDA staff is much more working, with the headquarters able to accommodate homes, allowing them to scramble for attractions in overflowing parking lots and offices and run out of toilet paper in crowded bathrooms.
National Institutes of Health
From the NIH workforce, officials are expected to drop to similar levels as when the Trump administration ended.
At the end of fiscal year 2024, the Bureau of Medical Science Research hired more than 21,000 people, up from 17,705 people at the end of fiscal year 2019.
Like other institutions, the voluntary departure of scientists and other workers may make up for some expected cuts. One said they heard at the meeting that about 1,400 people were looking for an acquisition, early retirement or both.
One said up to 3,800 employees could be laid off from the agency’s payroll, if not more, depending on how many employees are counting from the starting staff.
Medicare and Medicaid Service Center
Some suspect that cuts in Medicare and Medicaid Services may be smaller, as the agency already faces restrictions on hiring under the Biden administration.
The agency's chief operating officer only said in the second half of last year that it could resume hiring after its financial position turned around.
In 2024, the Baltimore-based agency had 6,557 employees, a slight margin from the 6,074 workforce in 2019.
A CMS official said they heard internally that early retirement and acquisitions collected by employees in certain areas of the agency may be enough to retain most of the staff of the agency’s remaining staff.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Management
Several workers in the Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said they knew nothing about the potential cuts in proxy leadership.
Some hope a letter from House Democrats to Kennedy denounced reports that half of the agency's employees could lay off employees, which could avoid steep layoffs.
The agency's workforce had 916 workers at the end of the last fiscal year, and had fallen to a low of 521 by the end of the first Trump administration.
Doge's sacks of probation workers earlier this year have resulted in More than 10% The agency was laid off employees, including those working on projects with 988 Hotline for people with mental health crises.
Dr. Céline Gounder contributed to the report.
