The Department of Government Efficiency has been broadly cutting personnel and programs across the federal government over the past couple of months, and the admittedly wide swathe has inadvertently included some personnel and programs that have been deemed necessary.

That includes the Department of Health and Human Services, but Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just announced that HHS would soon reinstate an undisclosed number of erroneously axed personnel and programs that should not have been cut, ABC News reported.

Kennedy did not say when those reinstatements might occur or provide details on which former employees or cut programs would eventually be brought back.

Some fired employees and cut programs will be brought back

With the help of DOGE, per ABC News, HHS recently terminated more than 10,000 jobs and cut an untold number of programs that were identified as duplicative, wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive of taxpayer money, though Sec. Kennedy has now acknowledged that some of those cuts were mistaken.

During an event on Thursday, Kennedy was asked by a reporter about a cut earlier this week to a special program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that monitors levels of lead exposure for children, and the secretary admitted, "There were some programs that were cut that are being reinstated, and I believe that that's one."

"We're streamlining the agencies. We're going to make it work for public health, make it work for the American people," he continued. "In the course of that, there were a number of instances where studies that should have 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."

Kennedy explained, "The part of that, DOGE -- we talked about this from the beginning -- is we're going to do 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 make mistakes, we're going to admit it and we're going to remedy it, and that's one of the mistakes," he added of the CDC lead exposure monitoring program.

CDC program in question to be reassigned

ABC News noted that Sec. Kennedy declined to provide any details on when terminated employees might be rehired or when cut programs will be restored, and there is some conflicting information about the particular CDC program that prompted the secretary's remarks.

Though Kennedy seemed to suggest that the lead exposure monitoring program would be reinstated, the outlet reported that an unnamed HHS official suggested otherwise, and said, "The personnel for that current division, of how it exists now, are not being reinstated. The work will continue elsewhere at HHS. We are consolidating duplicate programs into one place."

According to CNN, that was further clarified by HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon, who said, "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."

Part of a massive overhaul and restructuring of HHS

It was just about a week ago that an HHS press release announced a massive restructuring of the department that would include a reduction in the workforce and regional offices, a consolidation of 28 divisions down to just 15, and the creation of the new Administration for a Healthy America, which will be a centralization of multiple HHS subagencies into a single entity.

"We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic," Sec. Kennedy said in a statement at that time. "This Department will do more -- a lot more -- at a lower cost to the taxpayer."

"Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants," he added. "This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again."