Washington DC - Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was recently forced to reinstate a handful of programs that shouldn't have been removed as part of cuts he ordered.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Kennedy explained that he has been working with President Donald Trump on "streamlining" the agency, but mistakes were made.

"In the course of that, there were a number of instances where studies that should not have been cut were cut... personnel that should not have been cut were cut," Kennedy said.

"We're reinstating them, and that was always the plan," he added.

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His remarks came after the department laid off around 10,000 of its employees and dismantled several agencies they intended to condense into one.

Kennedy claimed a Center for Disease and Prevention (CDC) program that monitors lead exposure levels among children would be reinstated, but refused to give details on others.

He went on to explain that the cuts were not the ones pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump's made-up agency run by Elon Musk.

"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," Kennedy said.

"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.

While Kennedy appeared dismissive of the "mistake," it isn't the first time it has happened, as DOGE, which has been tasked with cutting waste and abuse from the federal government, has done so repeatedly within the three months of Trump's second term, resulting in thousands of workers being fired, only to be reinstated shortly after.

The Trump administration has adopted the argument that mistakes will and have been made by DOGE, but they inevitably will lead to a greater outcome.

In a recent interview, Vice President JD Vance said they were "accepting of mistakes," but argued they were focused on trying to "preserve as much of what works in government as possible, while eliminating what doesn't work."

HHS later shared a statement updating ABC News that the CDC program that monitors lead exposure would not be reinstated, as Kennedy had claimed.