Administration makes deep cuts in two food-safety watchdog agencies

CHICAGO, March 27, 2025 — The Trump Administration is cutting the workforces of two key food-safety watchdogs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The payroll of the FDA will be reduced by 3,500 full-time employees, while the CDC will eliminate 2,400 positions. 
The reductions are part of a sweeping reorganization of the safety agencies’ parent organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The plan calls for eliminating 20,000 of HHS’ 82,000 full-time jobs, or just under 25%. 

In addition, the regional facilities connected with HHS will be reduced by half, to five nationwide.

In announcing the reductions, HHS said federal food-inspection processes would not be affected, and stressed that the eliminated jobs would largely be administrative positions. 

But it also stated that the functions of the CDC would be narrowed to “its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks.”  The agency’s authority and the safety functions of the FDA were greatly enhanced in 2011 by the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, a landmark measure that called for earlier detection of food-poisoning outbreaks, in part through more comprehensive data collection.

HHS said the reorganization and cutbacks would cut the department’s expenses by $1.8 billion annually while “making the agency more responsive and efficient.”

“This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” commented HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
 
The department reiterated the “new HHS priority” of "ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”

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