The Trump administration has announced its plans to consolidate the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) into a new entity dubbed the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). 

In addition to SAMSHA, the AHA will be comprised of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). 

This comes as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced its plans to cut 10,000 jobs in an effort to save $1.8 billion a year. The agency plans to go from 28 divisions to 15 divisions. The job cuts will impact the FDA and CDC as well.

“We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Health America,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., posted on social media Thursday morning. “ We have two goals. The first is obvious, to save the taxpayer money by making our department more efficient. And the second is to radically improve our quality of service.”

HHS pitches the consolidation of agencies as a way to “increase operational efficiency” and “break down artificial division between similar programs.” The AHA will now include divisions focused on primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental health, HIV/AIS work and the workforce, according to an HHS fact sheet.

“Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” Kennedy said in a press release. “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.”

Historically, SAMSHA has led public health efforts related to mental health and substance use disorders (SUD). The agency was responsible for providing funding opportunities for organizations focused on promoting mental health, preventing substance misuse and fostering recovery.