Overview
- Chris Klomp, the current Medicare chief, was named a senior counselor tasked with running HHS’s day-to-day operations as the department’s de facto chief of staff, while continuing to lead Medicare, according to multiple reports.
- Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart are expected to leave HHS as part of the restructuring, with O’Neill also exiting his role as acting CDC director, outlets including CNN and Axios reported.
- Additional changes include naming CMS deputy administrator John Brooks as a senior counselor for CMS issues and elevating FDA officials Grace Graham and Kyle Diamantas to HHS senior counselor roles, with current HHS chief of staff Matt Buckham shifting to a counselor position.
- Senior Trump aides view the shakeup as a way to refocus HHS on politically popular priorities such as drug price negotiations and healthy-eating initiatives while tightening messaging control across the health agencies.
- The leadership reset follows a tumultuous year under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose vaccine-policy rewrites and program cutbacks drew sustained criticism as polling from KFF showed further declines in public trust in federal health agencies.