Health and Human Services to Lay Off 10,000 Employees — What's Next for RFK Jr.?
Mass firings of federal employees will coincide with various agency shutdowns.
Published March 28 2025, 9:03 a.m. ET
As U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk generate headlines for laying off an astounding number of federal employees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the recently appointed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — is following suit.
On March 27, Kennedy's plans to lay off 10,000 HHS employees and shut down various agencies were made public.
Kennedy's restructuring of HHS, as well as his intention to reallocate billions in funding, has led to a considerable amount of confusion among federal employees and concern from beneficiaries of federal funding regarding what comes next.
Here's what we know about the layoffs that occurred and what to expect in the coming days and weeks.
10,000 Health and Human Services jobs were cut.
According to the Associated Press (AP), 10,000 employees will be laid off as part of a major HHS restructuring that is being overseen by Secretary Kennedy.
Kennedy, whose controversial stance on vaccinations and other public health matters has elicited concern from medical professionals and public health experts, acknowledged that a "painful period" lies ahead for the department. Perhaps contradictingly, he mentioned that he seeks to improve agency morale, per an HHS video shared by POLITICO.
As reported by Reuters, the mass layoffs include:
- 3,500 employees from the Food and Drug Administration
- 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health.
The 10,000 layoffs follow a staggering 10,000 "voluntary departures," per Reuters, thus reducing the number of HHS employees to about 62,000.
"Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants," Kennedy said, per Reuters. "This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That's the entire American public because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again."
What has RFK Jr. done so far?
Since Kennedy's appointment to the lead position at HHS, controversy abounds. Amid major concerns about the measles outbreak in the U.S., Kennedy authored an opinion piece for Fox News, which was also published on the HHS website.
Kennedy believes that the decision to vaccinate is a personal one, and he believes Vitamin A can "dramatically" reduce the number of deaths from the measles. He also opined that the greatest defense against chronic and infectious diseases is proper nutrition.
It should be noted that Kennedy is not a medical doctor or credentialed public health expert.
Additionally, per NPR, real medical doctors are concerned about Kennedy's anti-vaccination stance as the number of measles cases rises across multiple states.
"Mentions of cod liver oil and vitamins [are] just distracting people away from what the single message should be, which is to increase the vaccination rate," infectious disease physician Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told NPR.
Furthermore, recommending that people take Vitamin A to prevent measles "doesn't replace the fact that measles is a preventable disease," Dr. Adam Ratner, an American Academy of Pediatrics infectious disease committee member, told NPR. "And really, the way to deal with a measles outbreak is to vaccinate people against measles."