Top Aides To Rfk Jr. Will Leave Posts

Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart will leave their current roles as part of a larger shakeup of health department leadership, according to two HHS officials and a person familiar with the personnel decision granted anonymity to discuss the moves.

“They are being offered jobs within the administration but will not be remaining in their current positions,” the person familiar told POLITICO.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Chris Klomp, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would become chief counselor in charge of overseeing all Health and Human Services Department operations. Klomp’s work on President Donald Trump’s push to lower drug prices has elevated his profile both at HHS and at the White House. He was a health tech executive and venture capitalist before joining the administration last year.

Kennedy also elevated Kyle Diamantas and Grace Graham to senior counselors for the Food and Drug Administration. They also will retain their prior roles as deputy commissioner for human foods and deputy commissioner for policy, legislation and international affairs, respectively. John Brooks will also become a senior counselor at CMS in addition to his job as chief policy and regulatory officer.

A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the HHS changes said they reflect how important health care has become for the Trump administration ahead of the midterm elections.

The personnel moves are aimed at “muscling up the management team over at HHS” to focus on Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again policies, such as changes to dietary guidelines and his push to eliminate artificial food dyes, as well as health care affordability policies such as Trump’s most-favored nation drug pricing pressure campaign.

“What basically happened was that HHS Secretary Kennedy, and also the White House, realized that we want to be most efficiently and most effectively implementing that policy and moving the needle on these issues that we see as very clear and unambiguous wins for us,” the White House official said. “And obviously the polling and such is very clear on these topics as well.”