Robert F Kennedy Jr said that the country’s health agencies would reduce 10,000 jobs for their workforce by 82,000 people-a huge reduction that the Secretary in the United States has described as rationalization of the federal bureaucracy in the middle of the internal resistance to the order of the day of the administration.
The cuts announced Thursday, as well as the previous restructuring and voluntary redemptions, mean the ministry of Health And social services (HHS) will lose around 20,000 workers.
Kennedy said the ministry would also close half of its regional offices and will create a new agency called “Administration for a healthy America” or AHA.
“We are not only reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We realign the organization with its main mission and our new priorities in the inversion of the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said on Thursday morning.
The HHS is among the largest branches of the federal government, supervising a budget of 1.7 TNs and agencies which are names of family. Among HHS surveillance agencies are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The critical work carried out by these agencies includes the protection of the Americans against epidemics and infectious diseases of the CDC, which leads the largest biomedical and behavioral research agency financed by the world to NIH, providing health insurance to 137 million Americans by means of public drug and medicaid programs to the CMS, and approving and regulating medical devices, drugs and foods FDA.
Donald Trump and its billionaire ally Elon MuskWho oversees the massive employment federal initiative via the unofficial “department of government efficiency” have agencies in the context of an effort to reduce federal bureaucracy, with cuts that have health agencies perceived in particular.
“Any reduction that you make to a health agency should be made with incredible care and consideration for the hundreds of millions of Americans who count on their work to stay healthy and be treated when they are sick,” said Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, previously the CMS administrator of the Biden administration and now the main member of the Century Foundation. Take a “demolition bullet” to health agencies and “dismiss thousands of people … does not move us forward,” said Brooks-Lasure.
In his announcement, Kennedy also alluded to the internal resistance to HHS upheavals, saying: “In one case, provocative bureaucrats prevented the secretary’s office from accessing closely guarded databases which could reveal the dangers of certain medications and medical interventions.” Kennedy did not specify the databases or the medical interventions in question.
In a description of the cuts, HHS said that it planned to eliminate 3,500 full -time employees from the FDA. The administration said that cuts would not affect inspectors or drugs, medical devices and food examiners. The CDC will lose 2,400 staff members, the administration for strategic preparation and the response folded in the CDC. The NIH will lose 1,200 additional employees in its 27 institutes and centers. The CMS will lose 300 people. HHS did not provide detailed ventilation of programs, services or roles to be cut.
“We receive panicked calls from our health agencies as to what the funding is going to be cut,” said the Democratic Senator of the United States, Patty Murray, of Washington’s state, noting that the country is in the midst of the serious and expanding flu in measles in western Texas. Murray added that the administration’s decision seems to be an illegal “restraint” of the funds allocated by the congress.
Restructuring will also consolidate 28 branches in the department in 15 new divisions, including the new AHA. The AHA will combine offices in the HHS which deal with dependence, mental health, toxic substances and professional security, among others, in a single central office, said the agency. The new units will also centralize functions such as external affairs, human resources and IT, said HHS.
“Today’s announcement is not only a restructuring of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, it is a disaster for the health of each American,” said Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Markey. “Kennedy, Musk and Trump only serve the richest people in our country.”
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While Democrats argued that discounts are at the service of the extension the richConsumer defenders have also sounded alarms, arguing that mass layoffs will inevitably close programs.
The Citizen public consumer group has said that FDA reductions increase “the chances that more dangerous medicines and medical devices are marketed and that we all suffer from avoidable diseases”.
Massive restructuring occurs while research funding is threatened. The NIH has canceled nearly 400 active subsidies since the administration took the reins, with diversity, equity and inclusion programs; transgender questions; And research in South Africa and now COVVI-19 as targets for funding. The Long Long Research and Practice Office announced this week be closed As part of the reorganization.
A report in Nature Wednesday, revealed that federal workers who manage the investments in search of the government with scientists had been responsible for canceling COVVI-19 research subsidies, a category potentially encompassing $ 850 million and more than 600 projects. The financing gels of the same agency have turned into account critical research on diseases as diverse as pediatric cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
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Reuters contributed the reports