WASHINGTON –
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.
The cuts, which affect several high-profile agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, are part of a broad plan by Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described the cuts, which combined with other recent departures will reduce total headcount to 62,000 from 82,000, as essential to streamlining a bloated bureaucracy.