Kennedy said he was reorienting the health department to battle chronic illness.
Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday he will cut about 10,000 full-time jobs from the Cabinet department in a dramatic reduction that includes closing half its regional offices as part of a wider Trump administration overhaul of the federal government.

Combined with HHS employees who previously accepted buyouts and others who were already fired, the agency’s workforce will be sliced by one-quarter from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000 since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The Department of Health and Human Services ‒ which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ‒ will consolidate the agency’s 28 divisions into 15 new divisions in Kennedy’s shakeup. This includes a new Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, to carry out Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
The department plans to close five of its 10 regional offices and centralize key functions such as human resources, information technology, procurement, external affairs, and policy. HHS officials insisted the restructuring will keep Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential health services “intact.”

The moves, which drew immediate backlash from Democrats, come as Kennedy is under intense scrutiny in his role as the nation’s top health official, given his lack of medical and public health experience and long record of anti-vaccine statements.
Kennedy’s changes are intended to reflect a new priority of “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins,” the agency said.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”