Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that certain programs at HHS had been mistakenly cut in the effort to reduce the workforce by 10,000 roles, adding that the administration was willing to acknowledge when it made mistakes and remedy them.

But officials soon walked back Kennedy’s comments and no significant numbers of employees have been hired back.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on during a press conference on April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City.

Asked on Monday whether any reinstatements were planned, Kennedy instead sought to describe programs as “consolidated” and insisted no “core” roles had been cut.

He didn’t say, as he did last week, that roles were mistakenly cut or that they would be reinstated.

“We didn’t cut any core programs or any critical care programs or any scientific programs,” Kennedy said in response to a question from ABC News. “Those programs are being consolidated in the new agency that is going to make America healthy again.”

Last week, when asked why a CDC program that monitored lead exposure among children was almost entirely gutted, Kennedy told ABC News that the department’s work with DOGE meant “80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we’ll make mistakes.”

“And one of the things that President Trump has said is that if we, if we make mistakes, we’re going to admit it and we’re going to remedy it, and that’s one of the mistakes,” Kennedy said.

But soon after, an HHS official clarified that the specific program Kennedy was asked about was not going to be brought back. The work would be moved to the newly-formed Administration for a Healthy America, the official said.

And later that week, a source confirmed that there were not, in fact, any further plans to hire back HHS employees agency wide, despite Kennedy’s comments implying wider efforts to reinstate people.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett