The layoffs of 10,000 full-time employees include 3,500 FDA employees, equal to nearly one-fifth of the agency’s workforce.
The plan — which RFK said is part of Trump’s DOGE workforce reduction initiative led by Musk, who also owns X and brain implant developer Neuralink — would also cut 2,400 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees (18% of the total workforce), 1,200 National Institutes of Health employees (6%) and 3oo Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employees (4%).
HHS said FDA inspectors and drug, medical device and food reviewers will not be affected by the cuts.
HHS said about 10,000 more employees have accepted offers to resign under the Trump Administration, which already cut workers from the FDA before asking some to return. Those voluntary departures plus the newly announced layoffs will leave HHS with around 62,000 employees.
Previously: RFK Jr. says he wants to eliminate ‘entire departments’ at FDA under Trump
RFK Jr. also said that in one case, employees “impeded” his office from “accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the danger of certain drugs and medical interventions,” though he did not offer more details. (Update: former FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks says he declined to provide unrestricted access, fearing the modification or deletion of data.)
DOGE has declined to explain its attempts to access sensitive data when embedding its team within the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Treasury Department, and the Education Department.
AdvaMed President and CEO Scott Whitaker said today that his medical device industry association “agree[s] with the secretary’s goal to ensure that HHS and its subagencies are more efficient and accountable.”
“My understanding is that FDA experts whose entire mission is to improve and not stand in the way of patient access to innovative medtech will not be affected. This is good news,” Whitaker said in an email. “Looking forward, our view is that any reduction in force should be accompanied by policy and regulatory improvements that encourage innovation in medtech.”
HHS has more information about the layoffs here.
