Mass layoffs expected to begin at health agencies as Kennedy agenda takes shape

Thousands of federal workers were bracing for pink slips Friday as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begins dismantling the sprawling federal agency responsible for protecting America’s health.

Some 10,000 full-time jobs were on the chopping block as part of the White House’s “reduction in force” plan to effectively shutter or downsize a number of divisions under the HHS umbrella.

HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Overall, the cuts will shrink the health department’s workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 when combined with its earlier layoffs, Andrew Nixon, a senior spokesperson for HHS, said Thursday.

Targeted workers said it’s likely to get ugly.

“No matter what happens, this is going to be a bad day,” a CDC official told NBC News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. “It feels like we’re participating in the ‘Hunger Games’ reaping.”

The layoffs add to growing evidence that Kennedy, who tried to strike a moderate tone during his Senate confirmation, is set to pursue an agenda that could radically reshape public health across the U.S.

Kennedy has long talked about dismantling the federal public health infrastructure. During his failed run for president, he vowed to hollow out the CDC and the NIH. Elon Musk’s project, the Department of Government Efficiency, has provided a Trump-endorsed plan to make that dream a reality and set the stage for him to remake the health agencies in his image.

The cuts come as Kennedy has begun to exercise his influence on HHS priorities. Earlier this week, NBC News reported that the CDC was preparing to hand vaccine safety data to a discredited researcher who has spread misinformation regarding vaccines and autism. The FDA recently canceled a meeting about flu shots, and Kennedy has downplayed the importance of vaccination in Texas amid a measles outbreak.

But even before the first HHS worker was sent packing Friday, the reduction rollout had been marked by chaos, CDC officials said.

Requests from center directors for early or even simultaneous notice of the cuts were ignored by HHS, according to one senior official, who said leadership was learning about layoffs and division closings from reports in the media and relying on their staffers to let them know if they received termination notices.

Experts warned that wholesale staffing cuts would be hazardous to maintaining public health.

“Making America Healthy Again sounds great, but that’s not possible when HHS is hollowed out with major staff and funding cuts,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

“Loss of career scientists will have long-term consequences for public health and safety,” Gostin said. “It will be very difficult to rebuild the public health workforce. In my view, these cuts are dangerous and shortsighted. Public health is invisible but it saves lives every day.”

Earlier, NBC obtained a memo that revealed that HHS workers would be notified as early as Friday whether they would be laid off.

HHS said Thursday that 28 divisions in the health department contain “redundant units,” and that the restructuring plan will consolidate them into 15 divisions.

“We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for Healthy America or AHA,” Kennedy said in a post on X.

Among the agencies set to be folded into the AHA include the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which includes a program focused on HIV treatment.

Meanwhile, the divisions being eliminated or reduced at the CDC include those focused on global health, domestic HIV prevention and injury prevention, such as gun violence, HHS said Thursday. 

In total, the CDC will decrease its workforce by about 2,400 employees, Nixon said Thursday. The administration will also move the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which manages the nation’s emergency stockpile, from HHS to the CDC, he said.

Also facing big cuts are the FDA, NIH and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The FDA will decrease its workforce by about 3,500 full-time employees; the NIH headcount will be reduced by 1,200 employees; and CMS will lose about 300 workers.

Nixon said the reorganization of CMS will not affect Medicare and Medicaid, nor will it affect the timeline for the FDA’s review of drugs, medical devices and food.

The latest expected mass layoffs are separate from earlier attempts by the Trump administration to fire thousands of probationary employees at the CDC and other federal agencies. Two federal judges have since ordered the temporary reinstatement of many of those affected workers.