Health and Human Services employees were notified that the department plans to lay off around 10,000 employees on Tuesday.
The firings will target positions in human resources, procurement, finance, and information technology, according to the Associated Press.
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The move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining with federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions, including at HHS. His administration has already fired tens of thousands of employees across the federal government.
Positions in “high cost regions” or those deemed “redundant” will be the focus of the layoffs, according to a memorandum sent to union representatives for HHS employees.
In total, the department will lose about a quarter of its staff, with 10,000 being through these layoffs in addition to 10,000 workers who accepted early retirement and voluntary separation offers from the Trump administration.
Around 3,500 jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods, will be eliminated.
Another 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide, and 1,200 jobs at the National Institutes of Health will be eliminated.
About 300 people at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare, and Medicaid, will also be laid off.
The layoffs also come on Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s first day as director of the NIH.
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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he is in charge of, calling it an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday, blaming bureaucratic bloat for a decline in public health.
“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said in the video.