RFK Jr. Backtracks On Massive Cuts to HHS Just Days After Announcing Them

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged Thursday that some programs and federal employees who were fired earlier this week would be reinstated, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the Journal, one program that was axed was one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracked juvenile lead exposure.

With regard to the CDC initiative that monitors blood lead levels in children, Kennedy admitted that some mistakes were made during the reorganization, explaining that agency leaders were open to making broad cuts – even if decisions to do so later had to be reversed.

“Some programs that were cut, they’re being reinstated,” Kennedy said. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We’re reinstating them.”

That program and others were slashed this week amid after a sweeping reorganization of the department, which led to mass layoffs and program eliminations – and targeting thousands of jobs.

Last week, Kennedy revealed plans to lay off 10,000 employees as part of the restructuring of HHS and the agencies it oversees.

The layoffs began Monday night and continued into Tuesday morning. Employees scrambled to determine which positions had been eliminated and how to maintain essential government operations, according to the report.

Kennedy implied that slashing a majority of HHS staffers and programs was a DOGE-like goal – and that reinstating some programs later was a feature and not necessarily a bug.

“That was always the plan,” Kennedy said of the chaotic way in which the cuts were made.

Kennedy’s sledgehammer cuts have led to the elimination of entire divisions within the CDC, FDA, and NIH.

Some programs that were slashed focused on HIV prevention, violence prevention, injury prevention, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Kennedy defended the cuts as crucial to streamlining HHS.

“We are going to do more with less,” he said.