The Department of Health and Human Services is reducing its workforce and centralizing several functions in a major revamp following the White House executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said in the department’s statement on the organizational revamp that the move not only reduces “bureaucratic sprawl” but also realigns HHS with its core mission and new priorities. “This department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” Kennedy remarked.

$1.8B Projected Annual Savings

The HHS reorganization will entail a reduction of approximately 10,000 employees, downsizing the organization’s workforce to about a 62,000 manpower complement and reducing its payroll by $1.8 billion annually. Centralization of IT employees is also one of the focus areas of the revamp of the department.

Its restructuring will create the Administration for Health America, combining the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Overall, the HHS will streamline its functions by consolidating 28 divisions into 15 new divisions and reducing regional offices from 10 to 5. To prevent misuse of federal health programs, a new assistant secretary for enforcement will be created to manage the Departmental Appeals Board, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and Office for Civil Rights.

New Strategy Office to Enhance Research 

An Office of Strategy will also be formed, merging the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to enhance research input for the HHS secretary’s policies and baseline data to improve federal health programs’ effectiveness. 

In addition, the department’s Administration for Community Living will be reorganized, reassigning its support programs for seniors and people with disabilities to other agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Medicare and Medicaid services, major programs that HHS initiated in 1969 after it became a standalone department in 1979, will not be affected by the reorganization.

Senate has confirmed Paul Lawrence as deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lawmakers on Thursday voted 51-45 in favor of Lawrence’s appointment, Senate.gov reported. 

He will serve alongside Doug Collins, who was confirmed for the role of VA under secretary in February. 

VA Second in Command

The recent vote marks Lawrence’s return to the VA, where he held the role of under secretary for benefits from 2018 to 2021 during President Donald Trump’s first term. He oversaw the delivery of disability compensation, pension, home loan guarantees, life insurance and other benefits available to veterans and their dependents. 

Before the VA, he led as vice president of public sector at Kaiser Associates. For over a year, he managed the consulting firm’s efforts to capture opportunities at the General Services Administration and Department of Agriculture. 

He also held leadership positions at Ernst & Young, Accenture, IBM and MITRE, but he spent the majority of his private sector career as a partner at PwC.

The VA official served in the Army as a captain in the 1980s. He graduated from Airborne School in Fort Benning in Georgia and received the Meritorious Service Medal.

President Donald Trump has sent Office of Science and Technology Policy Director and past Wash100 Award winner Michael Kratsios a letter articulating the three goals that need to be achieved to bring about what the president described as “the Golden Age of American Innovation.”

Revitalizing US Innovation

The first goal is to ensure that the U.S. continues to be the global leader when it comes to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum information science, according to an article the White House published Thursday.

Part of this goal is for the U.S. to stay ahead of its competitors technologically. “Rival nations are pushing hard to overtake the United States, and we must blaze a bold path to maintain our technological supremacy,” Trump said in the letter.

The second goal is to revitalize the science and technology enterprise in the U.S. The president called for new paradigms in research and the establishment of an ecosystem that, among other things, promotes meritocracy and attracts top talent.

The third goal involves ensuring that scientific progress and technological innovation drive economic growth and improve the lives of people.

Cementing US Technological Leadership

Reflecting on U.S. industriousness following World War II and the challenges faced by the country today, Trump said in his letter that “today, rivals abroad seek to usurp America’s position as the world’s greatest maker of marvels and producer of knowledge. We must recapture the urgency which propelled us so far in the last century. The time has come to return to our roots and renew the American scientific enterprise for the century ahead.”

Regarding Kratsios’ role in the effort, Trump said, “I am calling upon you to blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science. We have the opportunity to cement America’s global technological leadership and usher in the Golden Age of American Innovation. We are not just competing with other nations; we are seeking, striving, fighting to make America greater than ever before.”