This comes on top of 10,000 employees who\u2019ve left voluntarily, amounting to shrinking by about a quarter of the workforce. <\/p>\n
The cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. <\/p>\n
In its announcement, HHS said it will consolidate from 28 to 15 divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America, and will reduce regional offices from 10 to five. The workforce reduction will save $1.8 billion per year, the agency said. <\/p>\n
HHS\u2019 new priority will be to end \u201cAmerica\u2019s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins,\u201d the agency said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe aren\u2019t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,\u201d HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. \u201cThis Department will do more \u2013 a lot more \u2013 at a lower cost to the taxpayer.\u201d <\/p>\n
HHS said Thursday that cuts will include: <\/p>\n
Among the changes will be a new Administration for a Health America, which will combine the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. HHS said it will focus on areas such as primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental health, HIV\/AIDS and workforce development. <\/p>\n
HHS will also create a new assistant secretary for enforcement, who will oversee the Office for Civil Rights, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals and the Departmental Appeals Board. <\/p>\n
A new Office of Strategy will combine the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality \u201cto enhance research that informs the Secretary\u2019s policies and improves the effectiveness of federal health programs.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which handles disaster and public healthy emergency responses, will move under the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <\/p>\n
The Administration for Community Living, which support older adults and people with disabilities, will be integrated into other HHS agencies. <\/p>\n
HHS sent a formal reduction in force, or RIF, notice to American Federation of Government Employees union leaders early on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n
Specific notices to employees may be sent as soon as Friday, the email said. <\/p>\n
The reductions are mainly aimed at administrative jobs, including human resources, information technology, procurement and finance, according to the email. It will also target roles in high-cost regions and employees in areas that have been deemed redundant or duplicative within HHS or across the federal government. <\/p>\n
The union was asked to advise if or when it would like to start negotiating on impact and implementation. <\/p>\n
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n This comes on top of 10,000 employees who\u2019ve left voluntarily, amounting to shrinking by about a quarter of the workforce. The cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. In its announcement, HHS said it will consolidate from 28 to 15 divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America, and will reduce regional …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_primary_category":0,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":462,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}