HHS Announces Restructuring of its Office for Civil Rights

WASHINGTON — May 18, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced a reorganization of its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the Department’s law enforcement agency charged with enforcing laws protecting civil rights, conscience and religious freedom, and health information privacy and security. The reorganization returns OCR to a program-based structure that aligns OCR’s three critical substantive areas with three distinct subject-matter divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division.

“This reorganization restores the HHS Civil Rights Division and the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division and strengthens the Office for Civil Rights’ ability to defend religious liberty, enforce conscience protections, and combat unlawful discrimination,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Under President Trump’s leadership, HHS will defend these rights with clarity, accountability, and resolve.”

“This reorganization reinstitutes a structure that rightly prioritizes civil rights and conscience and religious freedom alongside health information privacy and security,” said HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Paula M. Stannard. “All three areas are deserving of subject-matter expertise and distinct senior executive leadership for OCR to best serve the American people.”

During President Trump’s first term, HHS established a landmark Conscience and Religious Freedom Division (CRFD) in OCR in January of 2018 to handle federal enforcement of the nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom. The division, led by a career government executive, also raised public awareness of conscience and religious freedom laws in health and human services, underscoring that violations are serious infractions that transgress basic human dignity and fundamental rights.

CRFD operated until March of 2023. Although OCR maintained jurisdiction over conscience and religious freedom authorities in health and human services after 2023, the Biden administration de-emphasized this work and dissolved the division, among other organizational changes. As part of the Biden reorganization, the administration also combined the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division and the then-Civil Rights Division into the Policy Division.

The new structure will improve OCR’s effectiveness and efficiency to advance the protection of conscience rights, address race-based discrimination in a color-blind manner, eradicate antisemitism and anti-Christian bias, and restore biological truth. The intake and processing of complaints filed with OCR and the review of reported breaches of unsecured protected health information will continue to be handled through an Enforcement Division that supports centralized intake and field office execution. The reorganization is not expected to result in reduction of OCR’s workforce.

More information about the reorganization will be published through a Federal Register notice next month.

About OCR: OCR is uniquely charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws, conscience and religious freedom laws, HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, and regulations governing the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records. OCR promotes and enforces laws that protect our nation’s security by advancing health information privacy and regulating the nation’s health care systems’ cybersecurity. Additionally, OCR administers and enforces laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, and religion in some of the most critical programs across the nation – those related to health and social services. OCR accomplishes its mission through enforcement, rulemaking, guidance, technical assistance, training, education, and outreach.

If you believe that your or another person’s health information privacy or civil rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with OCR at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/complaints/index.html.

Follow HHS OCR on X (formerly Twitter) at @HHSOCR.