RFK Jr. Says He’s Rehiring Thousands Of People He Mistakenly Fired | EUROtoday

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, advised reporters Thursday that he plans to reinstate many staff and packages he started chopping final week.

In head-scratching remarks, Kennedy mentioned he knew he was firing extra employees than essential when he introduced 10,000 job cuts by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

“There were a number of instances where studies that should have not have been cut were cut, and we’ve reinstated them. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut ― we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” he claimed whereas chatting with a press gaggle at an elementary faculty in Alexandria, Virginia.

Those job losses, which left hundreds of Americans scrambling for work and introduced life-saving analysis to a standstill, are all part of “streamlining the agencies,” he mentioned.

“The part of that, DOGE — we talked about this from the beginning — is we’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we’ll make mistakes,” Kennedy mentioned. “And one of the things that President Trump has said is that if we make mistakes, we’re going to admit it and we’re going to remedy it.”

Teams hit exhausting by layoffs had been targeted on tobacco use, gun violence, air high quality, occupational security, infectious illness, HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis.

When requested in regards to the gutting of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program targeted on monitoring lead publicity in youngsters, Kennedy mentioned he thinks that’s coming again, however isn’t truly positive.

“There were some programs that were cut that are being reinstated, and I believe that that’s one,” he mentioned.

But Erik Svendsen, the director of the division that oversaw the lead poisoning program, advised ABC News he hasn’t acquired any phrase about this system being reinstated.

Other employees, Kennedy mentioned, he believes will likely be reinstated embrace staff engaged on sure research and communications and human sources employees.

This isn’t the primary time Trump officers have admitted to mistakenly chopping authorities jobs. In February, the Department of Agriculture mentioned it had erred in firing staff engaged on the federal government’s response to fowl flu ― a rising outbreak that’s induced egg costs to soar.

And final month, the CDC requested about 180 fired staff to come back again to work.

The electronic mail to staff mentioned, “We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”