HHS Announces Mass Layoffs, Including 3,500 FDA Employees
On March 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that 10,000 employees will be laid off through a restructuring of the Department pursuant to the President’s Executive Order on DOGE. A press release states that along with other efforts, including early retirement and Fork in the Road, the organizational changes at HHS will result in downsizing of its staff from 82,000 to 62,000.
The 28 existing divisions of HHS will be consolidated into 15 divisions, including a new division, the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), and the HHS regional offices will be reduced from 10 to 5. AHA will encompass a number of current agencies, including the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
“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,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. stated in the press release. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
A fact sheet about the restructuring of HHS notes that “FDA [the U.S. Food and Drug Administration] will decrease its workforce by approximately 3,500 full-time employees, with a focus on streamlining operations and centralizing administrative functions.” According to the announcement, the reduction will not affect food, drug, and medical device reviewers, or FDA inspectors.
The planned reduction of FDA’s workforce follows Secretary Kennedy’s recent direction to the Agency to explore potential rulemaking to revise its Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Final Rule and related guidance to eliminate the self-affirmed GRAS pathway. The impact of the lower FDA headcount on these efforts remains to be seen. For further background and analysis regarding Secretary Kennedy’s directive to FDA regarding self-GRAS affirmations, see Keller and Heckman’s article, “Could Self-GRAS Determinations be Eliminated?”