Office of Budget Management (OMB) Director Russell Vought shared his support for workforce reductions at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) while applauding Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his leadership of the agency.
“No, it’s fantastic,” Vought said late Thursday when asked about the layoffs on Fox Business’s “Kudlow.”
“I talked with Secretary Kennedy about an hour ago, and he is really excited about what they’ve unveiled today, the extent to which they’ve [reorganized] the department, the number of people that they’re able to let go and be able to find efficiencies at HHS. And so, it’s really exciting what you’re seeing,” he added.
Vought, a co-author of the conservative Project 2025 agenda, has been a staunch advocate and strategic partner in the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the size of the federal government.
HHS specifically employs around 91,058 people and Kennedy has identified a way to cut up to 20,000 workers, or nearly a fourth of the workforce.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl,” Kennedy said in a statement announcing the layoffs. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
Democratic lawmakers have vehemently opposed the cuts citing concerns for public health.
“It is a catastrophe for the health care of every American,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said of the effort.
Early in Vought’s confirmation process, leaders called out his intent to inflict a conservative mandate through government entities.
“He’s the wrong man … he seems to care little about the needs of American families; at the wrong place … at powerful OMB, where his decisions will be felt in every corner of the country; with the wrong agenda — the horrible Project 2025,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said from the floor ahead of the confirmation vote.
Overall, Kennedy confirmed that HHS’s 28 divisions will be consolidated down to 15, and 10 regional offices will become five. He also announced the creation of a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), which the former independent presidential candidate said will coordinate chronic care and disease prevention programs.
