WASHINGTON—Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reshaping the nation’s health agencies and closing regional offices, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy is set to announce Thursday the planned changes, which include axing 10,000 full-time employees spread across departments tasked with responding to disease outbreaks, approving new drugs, providing insurance for the poorest Americans and more. The worker cuts are in addition to roughly 10,000 employees who opted to leave the department since President Trump took office, through voluntary separation offers, according to the documents.

The voluntary departures and the plan, if fully implemented, would result in the department shedding about one-quarter of its workforce, shrinking to 62,000 federal health workers. It will also lose five of its 10 regional offices. The documents viewed by the Journal say essential health services won’t be affected.

Key to the reorganization is a plan to centralize the department’s communications, procurement, human resources, information technology and policy planning—efforts currently distributed throughout the health department’s divisions and even their branches. Doing so will change how the health agencies function. In the past, leaders of major health agencies within HHS—such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration— considered themselves somewhat independent from the White House and even the health secretary.

Kennedy came into office as a frequent critic of the health department he was tasked with leading, taking issue with its Covid-19 performance as well as its support of vaccines. In a social-media post in the fall, he warned FDA employees to “pack your bags.”

As part of the reorganization, Kennedy is creating a new subdivision called the Administration for a Healthy America, which will combine offices in HHS that address addiction, toxic substances and occupational safety, among others, into one central office that will focus on chronic disease prevention programs and health resources for low-income Americans, according to the documents viewed by the Journal.

“We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement. He ran for president as an independent on addressing chronic disease in the country, especially among children, and pledging to eliminate chemicals in food and water. When Kennedy endorsed Trump in August, the two vowed to “make America healthy again.”

HHS is the latest of many departments the Trump administration has targeted for cuts. Efforts by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have resulted in thousands of layoffs across the federal government— though several lawsuits have challenged the administration’s ability to make such cuts.

As part of the 10,000 workers to be let go, the Trump administration plans to cut:

3,500 full-time employees from the Food and Drug Administration—or about 19% of the agency’s workforce

• 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce
• 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce
• 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce

The CDC will be “returning to its core mission” of preparing for and responding to epidemics, according to the document viewed by the Journal. The CDC cuts wouldn’t come from divisions focused on infectious disease, an HHS official said. Republicans have charged the CDC in the past with straying from its mission by researching topics such as the health impacts of gun violence.

The documents said the cuts won’t affect the FDA’s inspectors or drug, medical device or food reviewers. Many FDA probationary workers in the medical devices division were rehired a week after they were cut last month.

Under the new plan, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which oversees the Strategic National Stockpile and much of the nation’s pandemic preparedness planning, will move under the CDC, the documents said. Currently, it is its own operating division in HHS.

Kennedy’s new Administration for a Healthy America will include the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration, as well as two groups that currently reside within the CDC: the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

In addition, several offices related to adjudicating or investigating disputes related to Medicare or other areas of HHS will move under a new Assistant Secretary of Enforcement.

The health department’s small agency known well to healthcare researchers seeking key data, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, will merge with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation to form a new Office of Strategy, the documents said.

And critical programs for older adults currently under the Administration for Community Living will move to other divisions of HHS, including CMS.

ACL was created in the last major reorganization of HHS in 2012, when the Obama administration formed it from three offices focused on elderly and disabled Americans.

The cuts and major reorganization come shortly after the Senate confirmed two new leaders for the FDA and NIH, Dr. Marty Makary and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, respectively.

The nation’s public health agencies have faced criticism from Republicans over their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Americans chafed under the agencies’ recommendations for social distancing, masks, vaccines and school closures.

“The Covid-19 pandemic and our government’s heavy-handed response inflicted immeasurable harms on the American people, the economy and our freedoms,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) earlier this month as part of the launch of a new Senate working group aimed at improving the CDC.

The cuts are likely to face opposition from public health advocates, who have argued that federal agencies need more funding and personnel, not less.

“Reform should strengthen, not undermine, our ability to protect Americans from health threats,” said former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, who hadn’t seen the Trump administration’s specific plans but was addressing the prospect of CDC cuts generally earlier this month.

Trump’s current director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, who is working hand-in-hand with DOGE to cull the federal workforce, singled out the CDC in a panel discussion in September at Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

“Look at CDC,” Vought said, according to a recording posted online. “Most of them don’t even do public health. They are researchers that publish material. Who knows if it’s even relevant or not? They even themselves had to admit they were a failure in the public health crisis that comes once in a generation.”