• Posted April 7, 2025

Health Secretary Says Some Cuts to CDC Will Be Reversed

Some recent cuts at U.S. government health agencies may be reversed, including a key program that tracks lead exposure in kids, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week.

The lead poisoning prevention and surveillance branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was among offices hit by layoffs last week. It has worked with cities like Milwaukee, Wisc., to address lead contamination in schools, and critics warned the cuts would leave communities without much-needed support.

“There are some programs that were cut that are being reinstated, and I think that’s one of them," Kennedy said at an event late last week, according to a CNN report.

Kennedy explained that most of the cuts focused on administrative roles that were seen as redundant. 

But, he added, “there were a number of instances where studies that should 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 said the potential for mistakes had been talked about from the beginning. 

“We’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled because we’ll make mistakes,” Kennedy said.

Still, CDC sources told CNN they had not yet received any official notice that the lead program positions would be reinstated.

What's more, it’s unclear whether the program would return to the CDC or be moved to a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America, which Kennedy is forming under HHS.

The Milwaukee Health Department also said it had not received word about whether the CDC’s lead experts would be coming back.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, said in a statement that “HHS is planning to continue the important work of the lead poisoning prevention and surveillance branch that works to eliminate childhood lead poisoning under the Administration for a Healthy America.”

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SOURCE: CNN, April 3, 2025