MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday its plan to cut 10,000 employees from its workforce. The department says the move is in line with President Trump’s executive order to make the government run more efficiently. ‘Americans deserve a better Capital than today’s Washington’: Trump executive order forms task force on DC crime, beautification HHS says about 1,200 employees will be terminated from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “It’s kind of crazy because they already cut a lot of people already,” NIH Employee Chris Carson said, “...and unemployed is not a great place to be.” DC News Now talked to NIH employees Thursday who were shocked and said how unfortunate it is to see more people being let go. “If you ask me,” one NIH worker said, “it’s evil. I’m not going to lie because these are people’s jobs.” The restructuring will decrease the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) workforce by about 3,500, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) will lose around 2,400, NIH will lose approximately 1,200 and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will lose about 300. HHS says the dramatic restructuring will not impact critical services performed by those agencies. However, Montgomery County Council Vice President Will Jawando isn’t buying it. “They’re just saying that,” Jawando said. “There’s no way you can cut 10,000 people and say that’s not going to have an impact.” HHS says the cuts will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year, streamline the functions of the department, help implement their new priority of ending the country’s epidemic of chronic illness, and improve Americans’ experience with HHS by making it more responsive and efficient. DMV leaders react following announcement of HHS layoffs Carson doesn’t see it that way. “I don’t think it’s efficient,” he said. “They’re firing just random people. It’s not like a group of people; it’s just random firings across the board. Two people in my department were let go just randomly.” Now many federal workers are worried about their own job security. “I try not to think about it because I don’t want to be affected,” one NIH employee explained. "So, I don’t try to put that juju on me.” Carson emphasized, “I got two kids, so I don’t want to lose my job and not be able to feed my family.” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says this overhaul will help their goal to Make America healthy again. ...read more read less