The White House has issued a report with recommendations for reorganizing the structure of the executive branch in an attempt to shrink government and change how services are delivered to citizens.
The plan includes renaming the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Health and Public Welfare. The proposal would move the non-commodity nutrition assistance programs currently in the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (for example, SNAP) into Health & Human Services (HHS). It also would establish a Council on Public Assistance, comprised of all federal agencies that administer public benefits, with statutory authority to set cross-program policies including uniform work requirements.
Among many other changes, it calls for moving three HHS research arms – the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research – under the National Institutes of Health; renaming the Food and Drug Administration as the Federal Drug Administration and having it focus on drugs, devices, biologics and tobacco; and merging the departments of Labor and Education.
Most of the changes included in the 132-page report would require congressional approval.
