Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returned to Capitol Hill as we speak to defend the job cuts and restructuring he is overseen at federal well being companies since his affirmation and the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 finances cuts.
In back-to-back hearings earlier than the Home Appropriations Committee and the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Kennedy argued that HHS had been overtaken by paperwork, redundancy, and radical ideology and is in want of streamlining. He repeated the mantra that HHS will pursue “gold-standard” science to realize his purpose of addressing Individuals’ persistent well being points.
“We intend to do much more with much less,” Kennedy stated in his opening assertion earlier than the Home Appropriations Committee. “We should spend smarter. We are going to shift funding away from paperwork towards direct influence.”
Since taking cost of the division in February, Kennedy has overseen large adjustments with the help of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE). The variety of full-time workers at HHS has been reduce from 82,000 to 62,000 by a mixture of terminations, buyouts, and early retirements, and the company is within the technique of slicing its 28 divisions down to fifteen. A number of high officers on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) and the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) have been compelled out or taken early retirement. HHS has stated the cuts are designed to make the group extra environment friendly and extra conscious of Individuals’ wants.
President Trump’s proposed 2026 finances request would additional reduce the company’s discretionary finances by 26%. The NIH would lose $18 billion, whereas the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) would lose practically $3.6 billion. Each companies would have a number of divisions eradicated.
Republicans on each committees had been usually supportive of the adjustments overseen by Kennedy and DOGE and the proposed finances cuts.
“It is clear the established order doesn’t work,” stated HELP Committee chair Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-LA). “Bureaucratic bloat and regulatory hurdles on the Division of Well being and Human Companies have made it tougher to ship companies. HHS must work higher for the American folks.”
“We share your purpose of constructing America wholesome once more,” stated Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL).
However Democrats had been extra important. They usually repeatedly pressed Kennedy on the cuts which have already been made on the division, which they argued contain funding that is already been appropriated by Congress.
We intend to do much more with much less…We are going to shift funding away from paperwork towards direct influence.
“The proof suggests that you’re slicing billions of {dollars} in funding proper now,” stated Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), citing the Trump administration’s termination of $2.7 billion in beforehand authorized NIH analysis grants. “You do not need the authority to do what you are doing.”
DeLauro additionally argued that Kennedy doesn’t have the ability to restructure or remove companies with HHS. “That’s within the jurisdiction of the USA Congress,” she stated.
Kennedy rejected some studies of cuts at HHS sub-agencies, repeatedly saying that no working scientists had been fired and noting that many divisions are being moved to the newly fashioned Administration for a Wholesome America. However whereas he defended his reorganization of HHS and among the present and proposed finances cuts as crucial given the scale of the nation’s deficit, he additionally, on a number of events, acknowledged that the proposed finances cuts will have an effect.
“I believe the cuts that at the moment are proposed by NIH are going to harm,” Kennedy stated. “There isn’t any company head within the authorities that desires to see their finances reduce.”
Questions on measles, vaccines
Kennedy was additionally pressed by Democrats at each hearings on the US measles outbreak, which at present stands at 1,001 instances, and numerous statements he’d made in regards to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Though the nation is at present on tempo to have extra measles instances than it has had in additional than 20 years, Kennedy sought to downplay the outbreak.
“We’re doing a greater job at CDC as we speak than every other nation at controlling this measles outbreak,” Kennedy informed Rep. DeLauro, arguing that Europe, Mexico, and Canada are all seeing larger outbreaks than the USA.
When requested by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) whether or not he would inform dad and mom that the MMR vaccine was one of the best ways to forestall the unfold of measles, Kennedy stated he would. However in a back-and-forth with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) over a number of statements that he has made in regards to the MMR vaccine since changing into secretary—together with that the vaccine wanes in a short time, has by no means been totally examined for security, and incorporates fetal particles—Kennedy maintained these statements had been appropriate and that there are issues of safety with vaccines which have by no means actually been investigated.
“I will inform the reality about every part we all know and do not find out about vaccines,” he stated. “I am not going to simply inform those who every part is secure and efficient if I do know that there are points.”
Kennedy would later declare, in addressing a query in regards to the MMR vaccine from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), that the one vaccine that has been examined in a placebo-controlled trial was the COVID vaccine.
“The opposite 76 pictures that kids on this nation obtain between delivery and 18 years previous, none of them have been security examined in pre-licensing research towards a placebo, which suggests we do not perceive the chance profile for these merchandise, and that is one thing that I intend to treatment,” he stated.
Later within the listening to, Sen. Cassidy, a doctor who performed an important function in confirming Kennedy regardless of his issues about his positions on vaccines, famous for the file that Kennedy’s declare was not true.
“The rotavirus, measles, and HPV vaccines have all been [tested against placebo]and a few vaccines have been examined towards earlier variations,” Cassidy stated.
