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HHS Secretary Kennedy Backtracks on Program Cuts, Confusion Remains
Amidst the fallout from this week’s 10,000 job cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that some programs mistakenly eliminated would be reinstated.
Speaking to ABC News, Kennedy affirmed the department’s commitment to streamlining agencies for the benefit of public health and the American people. He acknowledged that certain studies and personnel were wrongly included in the cuts and are now being reinstated, claiming this was always part of the plan.
Kennedy attributed some of the erroneous cuts to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, which targeted administrative roles in communications and human resources. He admitted that vital research programs were unintentionally caught up in the sweeping layoffs.
One such program, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) branch responsible for monitoring childhood lead exposure and prevention, was gutted on Tuesday. Kennedy suggested this program might be among those slated for reinstatement, but offered no specifics on other programs or timelines. He invoked a 20% margin of error built into the DOGE strategy, citing President Trump’s commitment to admitting and rectifying mistakes.
Despite characterizing some cuts as “mistakes,” Kennedy insisted that “essential services” and “frontline” jobs would remain unaffected. However, Erik Svendsen, director of the division overseeing the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention branch, contradicted this claim, stating that the program’s work had ceased entirely with no indication of reinstatement or relocation within the CDC.
HHS later clarified to ABC News that the program would not be reinstated in its current form, with its functions being consolidated elsewhere within HHS. This is not the first instance of DOGE-related job cuts being reversed.
Hundreds of CDC and Food and Drug Administration employees initially fired in an earlier round targeting probationary workers were subsequently rehired.
The now-defunct CDC lead surveillance division played a crucial role in funding state and local public health programs across the US. Its responsibilities extended to monitoring other environmental toxins like wildfire smoke and radiation exposure. Svendsen emphasized the program’s unique and vital role in supporting local health departments, stating that without federal support, these crucial services would be left unaddressed.
The program’s importance was highlighted in recent incidents, such as the discovery of lead contamination in children’s applesauce pouches, which led to over 500 cases of elevated blood lead levels nationwide. The CDC team collaborated with the FDA to recall the contaminated product. Just prior to the cuts, the team was scheduled to travel to Milwaukee to assist with lead exposure investigations in public schools – a trip subsequently canceled.
Milwaukee Commissioner of Health, Mike Totoraitis, expressed cautious optimism about the team’s potential reinstatement, while also acknowledging the impact of other cuts on his city’s public health initiatives. He emphasized the reliance on federal support for various health issues beyond lead contamination and expressed concern about the wider implications of the HHS restructuring.