Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is touting a dramatic year-plus of restructuring at the nation’s largest health agency, arguing the changes are long overdue and will finally redirect federal resources toward fighting chronic disease instead of funding bureaucratic bloat.
Since taking office in February 2025, Kennedy has overseen workforce reductions, frozen or canceled billions of dollars in research funding, and pushed through a redesign of HHS meant to save $1.8 billion a year by trimming staffing levels back down closer to where they stood before the COVID-19 pandemic. The department is being streamlined from 28 divisions — many of which Kennedy has described as containing redundant units — down to 15, with the total HHS workforce expected to land around 62,000 employees.
Making America Healthy Again
Kennedy has framed the overhaul as central to his “Make America Healthy Again” mission, telling Congress the department’s goal is to end the “epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.” As part of that push, he’s redrawn federal guidance on topics ranging from seed oils to fluoride to over-the-counter medications, moves that have drawn strong praise from MAHA supporters who say they’ve waited years for an HHS secretary willing to challenge entrenched agency thinking.
“HHS will carry this momentum into 2026 to strengthen accountability, put patients first, and protect public health,” the department said.
Reshaping Key Panels
Kennedy has also moved to remake the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the influential panel that determines which screenings — like mammograms and colonoscopies — insurers must cover without copays. The panel, which Kennedy has criticized as “lackadaisical,” is set to convene in August with as many as eight new members, its first in-person meeting in 17 months after the administration postponed four previous sessions.
Not Without Critics
Public health researchers have raised concerns about some of the specific policy changes, including a May decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, and have questioned whether canceled research funding could set back scientific progress in other areas. Supporters counter that an agency overseeing trillions in federal health spending is long overdue for the kind of hard look Kennedy is giving it, and that restoring public trust in health institutions requires exactly the kind of disruption he’s brought to Washington.
This story is developing.
