Politics | Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK Jr.: We Fired Some People by Mistake HHS director suggests 20% of those let go will be reinstated By John Johnson Posted Apr 4, 2025 11:39 AM CDT Copied Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks Friday, March 28, 2025, in Martinsburg, W. Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough) Some of the thousands of federal health workers abruptly fired this week will be reinstated, says their boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The secretary of Health and Human Services told reporters that the chaotic back-and-forth is a necessary part of the process being undertaken by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, reports the Hill. "Part of the DOGE—we talked about this from the beginning—is we're going to do 80 percent cuts, but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we'll make mistakes," said Kennedy. Kennedy previously said he wanted to cut 10,000 employees as part of a restructuring of HHS, and whole divisions of the CDC, the FDA, and the National Institutes of Health were eliminated, per the Wall Street Journal. "Some programs that were cut, they're being reinstated," Kennedy said Thursday. "Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We're reinstating them." One of the programs being reinstated is one at the CDC that monitors lead levels in children's blood. Read These Next New Fox star, 23, misses first day after car troubles. Man accused of killing his daughters might be dead. Iran's supreme leader makes first public comments since ceasefire. Her blood isn't compatible with anyone else's. Report an error