RFK Jr. announces 10,000 job cuts at the Health Department, targeting the CDC, FDA, NIH, and the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on March 27, 2025 that HHS would cut approximately 10,000 positions in a sweeping restructuring, reducing the department's workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees. The announcement targeted specific agencies: 3,500 FDA workers, 2,400 CDC employees, 1,200 NIH staff, and 300 CMS workers. Kennedy, working alongside Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, framed the cuts as eliminating bureaucratic waste and consolidating redundant functions. The implementation proved chaotic: employees who should have received layoff notices did not get them, some notices named offices that no longer existed, and one notice directed discrimination complaints to an equal opportunity director who had died the previous year.