Health Minister Robert F Kennedy announced plans last week to reorganize the authority and on Tuesday, employees began to be laid off.
HHS is responsible, through various departments, among other things, for tracking disease outbreaks, financing medical research, overseeing food and drug safety, and administering health insurance programs in large parts of the country.
Multiple lawsuits
Several states have, through their attorneys general, chosen to unite to sue the Trump administration for the decision to cut $11 billion in federal funding for various health initiatives. A total of 23 states have submitted the lawsuit to a federal court in Rhode Island.
The lawsuit concerns, among other things, initiatives related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the states that have backed the lawsuit are New York, California, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, and the unit Washington DC.
Many laid off
According to Kennedy's plan, nearly a quarter of HHS's 82,000 employees will be removed from the authority. In addition to the 10,000 expected to be laid off, another 10,000 positions will disappear through early retirement and voluntary severance packages.
The cuts will primarily affect the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where 3,500 and 2,400 positions, respectively, will be eliminated.
In an interview in February, Kennedy said he has a list of HHS personnel he wants to get rid of.
If you're in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I think you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry, he said in the interview.
