The CDC’s lead addiction prevention team is one of the personnel who were misled.
Some of the 10,000 layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week were mistaken and rewinded, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on April 3.
The mass terminations carried out across HHS and its departments focused on streamlining the management section and integrating communications, information technology and human resource work, the health secretary told Virginia reporters.
“In the process, there have been many instances where research that shouldn’t be cut has been reduced. We’re recovering them. Those who shouldn’t be cut have been reduced – we’re recovering them. And that’s always been a plan,” Kennedy said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s lead poisoning prevention and surveillance division has been accidentally cut off and is back, according to the Health Secretary. The program focuses on preventing children from being exposed to leads by providing money and other support to state and local public health departments.
The CDC declined to comment.
HHS refused to give more examples of cuts being unwinded.
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“HHS plans to continue the key work of the lead poisoning prevention and surveillance department, which functions to eliminate lead poisoning in childhood under healthy American management,” a spokesman for HHS told the Epoch Times in an email.
On April 1, HHS sent termination notices to around 10,000 workers, including around 2,400 CDC employees, after identifying what they said was redundant work and department.
The review revealed a lack of communication and cooperation. This even included officials who instead of sharing it, he added, indicating the need for change.
“We’re streamlining our institutions. We’re going to make them work for public health and work for Americans,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday.
He referenced the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where President Donald Trump is tasked with working with various agencies, including the HHS, to identify what officials call unnecessary work and programs.
“Some of Doge talked about this from the start: it’s about making an 80% cut, but you’ll have to reinstall 20% of those because you’re making a mistake,” Kennedy said. “And one thing President Trump said is that if we make a mistake, we’re going to admit it and improve it.”
Calley, a special government official at HHS, told the Healthcare Forum in Washington on Thursday that HHS had a “record of total failure,” saying the dramatic reforms were the reason he voted for Trump, which Kennedy supported after he dropped out of the 2024 presidential election.
The new comments came after some lawmakers criticized the end.
Sanders, a ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the panel, appeared in Kennedy on April 1st before the panel and asked him to answer questions about the reorganization of the HHS.
Kennedy has pledged to appear before the committee quarterly during the confirmation process, seeking votes from the senators, lawmakers said.
“This will be a good opportunity for him to set the record straight and talk about the goals, structure and benefits of the proposed reorganization,” Cassidy said in a statement.
