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Key points
- Robert F Kennedy JR has announced plans to remodel Public Health Agencies of the United States.
- Combined jobs cuts with recent voluntary resignations reduce the number of personnel by around 20,000.
- The announcement is the last of a series of restructuring plans in the Federal Labor Force.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States (HHS) Robert F Kennedy JR has announced plans to remodel the federal public health agencies, including the 10,000 employees and centralize some functions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others under their control.
Employment cuts include 3,500 in the FDA, 2,400 in the CDC and 1,200 in the National Health Institutes (NIH).
The latest employment cuts, and around 10,000 recent voluntary exits, will reduce the number of full -time HHS employees to 62,000 from 82,000, the department said.
“Over time, bureaucracies such as HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent officials,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and billionaire Alia Elon Musk, which supervises the cost reduction initiative of the Government’s efficiency department, have been as part of an effort to reduce federal bureaucracy.
Great government agencies such as HHS extend over time, and there is merit to reorganize them, which has happened under democratic and republican administrations, but this plan goes beyond that, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy at the Kaiser Foundation Foundation Foundation without profit.
“This is not just a reorganization of HHS. It is also a court of the Federal Labor Force, which will finally affect government services,” said Levitt, former main advisor to the White House and HHS under former President Bill Clinton.
The planned FDA employment cuts would not affect the inspectors or reviewers of drugs, medical devices or food, HHS said.
It is likely that the endings delay the reviews of applications of medical and drug devices or cause lost deadlines, said Eva Temkin, a Arnold & Porter lawyer who advises customers about applications of medical and medication devices.
“There is a real risk that this is in delayed access to the patient to treatments,” he said.
The Strategic Preparation and Response Administration, currently an independent HHS agency with 1,000 employees, will be folded in the CDCs.
The NIH will see staff reductions in its 27 institutes and centers.
The Medicare and Medicaid service centers were saved relatively with a reduction of about 300 employees. It was not clear immediately that the remaining 2,600 cuts would come.
As part of the restructuring, the 10 regional offices of the department will be reduced to five and its 28 divisions are consolidated by 15, including a new administration for a healthy or AHA America.
The changes centralize functions such as communications, human resources, IT and policy planning that currently extend in several health agencies, including FDA, CDC and NIH. Agencies report the Secretary of Health, but have traditionally operated something regardless of HHS and the White House.
There are currently no additional cuts planned, the department said.
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