WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. refrained from disclosing additional specifics on his extensive reorganization plan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, following a substantial wave of layoffs that impacted thousands, severely impacting various offices nationwide.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are seeking clarity, with a bipartisan request submitted for President Donald Trump’s health secretary to testify before a Senate committee next week regarding the rationale behind the job cuts.
In an effort to reduce the department’s workforce by 25%, up to 10,000 employees, including scientists, senior leaders, doctors, and inspectors, received layoff notices. The agency has yet to provide precise details on which positions were eliminated, with most information surfacing from dismissed employees.
Kennedy, addressing the layoffs for the first time, stated on social media, “This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.” He described the move as advantageous for both taxpayers and the Americans served by the agency.
The restructuring is anticipated to save approximately $1.8 billion, roughly 0.1% of the department’s $1.7 trillion annual budget.
While final figures remain undisclosed, the department last week announced its intention to cut 3,500 jobs from the Food and Drug Administration, 2,400 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health. Public health experts and leading Democrats have expressed serious concerns about the substantial impact — estimated at 25% of the department’s workforce — on areas such as food and drug safety, medical research, and infectious disease prevention.
The criteria for selecting which jobs to cut and which to retain remain unknown.
Amid the ongoing reductions on Tuesday, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Republican, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent caucusing with Democrats, issued a letter urging Kennedy to appear before the Senate’s health committee. Cassidy commented that Kennedy’s testimony would fulfill a commitment to appear before the committee quarterly, and it provides “a good opportunity for him to set the record straight and speak to the goals, structure, and benefits of the proposed reorganization.”
Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, indicated that the House’s health subcommittee has questions as well. She asserted during a healthcare forum hosted by Politico, “We’re going to find out what the layoffs were all about — 10,000 — we didn’t know it,” emphasizing the need to understand the rationale behind these decisions.
Defending the cuts at the same event, Calley Means, a special government employee and close advisor to Kennedy, faced difficulty when asked about how the reorganization would specifically enhance Americans’ health. Several of his responses were met with skepticism and interruption.
Means remarked that the current system is on the wrong track and expressed a desire for more research from NIH moving forward. Politico’s Dasha Burns inquired about how the NIH would pursue expanded research efforts with a reduced workforce, noting the agency had already dismissed over 1,000 employees prior to this week’s layoffs. The Trump administration has also frozen numerous NIH grants and delayed significant funding amounts, as reflected on HHS’ own website, for critical research, including cancer studies and Alzheimer’s center operations nationwide.
In response, Means posed the question, “Has NIH funding been slashed?” He noted that the administration plans to channel more funds directly to scientists by capping “indirect costs” of research grants at 15%, a measure that researchers at hospitals and universities argue restricts essential funding necessary for conducting their studies.