RFK Jr. claims 20% of job cuts at Health Agency By Trump Administration were mistakes

The Trump administration’s large-scale effort to shrink the number of federal government workers has caused major disruptions inside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These widespread job cuts were driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and affected thousands of employees. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently admitted that about 20% of these layoffs were mistakes.

The first round of layoffs removed around 10,000 HHS employees, per The Guardian. This was just the start of planned cuts, with the department’s workforce of 82,000 possibly shrinking by almost 25%. These reductions were part of a bigger plan to make the federal government smaller and less wasteful. While many people support cutting government waste, the way these layoffs were handled has faced heavy criticism.

Kennedy’s statement that 20% of the layoffs were wrong underscores the messy process. He said some fired employees weren’t even in the administrative jobs meant to be cut. Important research positions were also lost. The effects of these mistakes are already being seen.

Trump administration giving jobs back after realizing mistakes

One major example is the shutdown of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that tracks lead exposure in kids—a critical public health effort. This program was accidentally cut but is now set to return. The damage went beyond the CDC. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also lost many jobs, including its entire tobacco policy division—even though it was paid for by the tobacco industry.

The layoffs hit many key areas, including research on smoking, infertility, and mine safety. Former FDA commissioner Robert Califf called the cuts “a dark day for public health.”

Some fired workers have been asked to come back temporarily, but it’s still unclear what will happen in the long term. For example, some FDA inspection and investigation staff have been offered temporary jobs, but no one knows who will stay permanently or which HHS functions will survive.

HHS has a huge $1.8 trillion budget and runs 13 agencies, including big names like the CDC, FDA, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The size of the layoffs and their effect on these agencies’ work might raise serious concerns about whether HHS can still do its job properly.