Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—HHS cuts 10,000 jobs and restructures, points to action implementing DOGE, (Mar 28, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Departmental Appeals Board | External Affairs
According to Secretary Kennedy, HHS is reducing bureaucratic sprawl and “realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
HHS is restructuring and eliminating 10,000 full-time jobs, in addition to the 10,000 full-time employees who already have taken early retirement or other incentives to leave through the Trump administration's Fork in the Road offer. According to HHS, the consolidation and cuts are designed to save money, make the organization more efficient and responsive to Americans’ needs, and implement the Make America Healthy Again goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic. HHS states that the changes are in accordance with President Trump's presidential action order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.”
Restructuring. HHS notes in a fact sheet on the changes that 28 divisions will be consolidated to 15. Also, ten regional offices will be centralized to five, and Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, External Affairs, and Policy divisions will be centralized. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) will be moved under the CDC. HHS will have a new Assistant Secretary for Enforcement to provide oversight of the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB), Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeal (OMHA), and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to combat waste, fraud, and abuse. The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will be combined into the Office of Strategy to conduct research and report on HHS programs' effectiveness. Critical programs within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) that support older adults and people of all ages with disabilities will be split across the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and CMS.
Workforce reductions. HHS includes the CDC, CMS, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other smaller divisions. Overall, the current 82,000 HHS employees will be reduced to 62,000, and that number includes those who took the Trump administration’s offer to leave in February, plus the recently announced 10,000 full-time jobs reduction. The FDA will decrease its workforce by approximately 3,500 full-time employees, with a focus on streamlining operations and centralizing administrative functions. HHS states that the reductions will not affect drug, medical device, or food reviewers, nor will it impact inspectors. The CDC will decrease its workforce by approximately 2,400 employees, including 1000 from ASPR, with a focus on returning to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks. NIH will decrease its workforce by approximately 1,200 employees by centralizing procurement, human resources, and communications across its 27 institutes and centers. CMS will decrease its workforce by approximately 300 employees, but the reduction will not impact Medicare and Medicaid services, according to HHS.
New AHA Administration. A new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) will consolidate the Office of Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (TSDR), and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Divisions of the new AHA will include Primary Care, Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, HIV/AIDS, and Workforce.
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