DOGE Orders HHS to Cut 35% of Contract Spending

In one email obtained by NOTUS, NIH employees were told they could not “use mission criticality as a justification to not make cuts.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA via AP

Elon Musk’s DOGE has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce all of its contract spending by 35% and is wielding enormous influence over what gets cut, according to internal emails and documents sent to employees last week and reviewed by NOTUS.

“HHS divisions shall conduct a comprehensive assessment of all existing contracts for reducing contract costs by a designated dollar value to achieve a reduction of total departmental contract spend by approximately $13.6 billion per fiscal year by April 18, 2025,” one document states. The directive obtained by NOTUS was sent to National Institutes of Health officials involved in contract decisions by NIH’s Office of Logistics and Acquisition Operation.

Savings targets for each HHS division were calculated by applying a 35% reduction target to the 2024 fiscal year contract spend, the document continues.

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