Trump Prepares Executive Order to Cut Thousands of Health and Welfare Department Employees

WSJ: "Signature Possible as Early as Next Week"

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing an executive order to reduce thousands of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services.

On the 6th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing sources, that President Trump is expected to sign such an executive order as early as next week.

The current number of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services exceeds 80,000. The executive order includes provisions requiring other health agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health to reduce their staff by a certain percentage. Each agency has been instructed to prepare lists of essential employees who must be retained and those who are not.

As President Trump moves to downsize federal government organizations and reduce personnel, more than 40,000 employees out of a total of 2.3 million federal civil servants have applied for voluntary resignation as of the previous day. However, amid legal controversies over the government's push for voluntary resignations of federal employees, the U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, has prohibited the government from carrying out the voluntary resignation process until the 10th. Accordingly, the deadline for voluntary resignation applications, which was set to close on that day, has also been extended.