Kennedy, defending downsizing, clashes with Democrats in tense hearings
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a defiant defense this week of his drastic overhaul of federal health agencies, insisting to members of Congress that he had “not fired any working scientists” and was “not withholding money for lifesaving research” despite evidence to the contrary.
In back-to-back appearances before House and Senate committees, Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccination, also made clear that he did not think the health secretary should be in the business of making vaccine recommendations. He ducked questions about whether, if he had young children today, they would be inoculated against measles, chickenpox or polio.
“I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice from me,” the health secretary said.
After weeks of controversy about his plans for autism research, Kennedy also testified Wednesday that federally funded studies should focus solely on identifying “environmental toxins” — a term that Kennedy’s critics say is code for vaccines.
“I’m told that there was a 20-to-1 research ratio for genetic causes over the past 20 years,” he said, adding: “I believe that was because they did not want to look at the environmental exposure because they were scared. So I don’t think we should be funding that genetic work anymore.”
Kennedy had come to Capitol Hill, his first appearance there since becoming health secretary, to promote President Donald Trump’s budget for the next fiscal year. But his testimony devolved into a series of fiery exchanges with Democrats, who wanted to talk about the mass layoffs and cuts to research funding he has already imposed.
Engineered in part by Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency, the remake of the health department includes cutting 20,000 jobs — one-fourth of the health workforce. It also collapses entire agencies, including those devoted to mental health and addiction treatment, and emergency preparedness, into a new, ill-defined “Administration for a Healthy America.”
Democrats charged that in making the cuts, Kennedy had usurped the power of Congress. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, pointedly directed him to language in the Constitution that gives Congress the power of the purse.
“You have an obligation to carry out the law and to implement what the Congress has done,” she said sharply. Kennedy insisted that if Congress gave his agency money, he would spend it. DeLauro shook her head, looking disgusted.
“Unbelievable,” she said. “Unbelievable.”
Kennedy clashed openly and angrily with Democratic lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol. He showed little hesitation in telling them they were wrong, and engaged in a heated back-and-forth that is unusual for any witness, much less a Cabinet secretary coming to Congress to ask for money to run his agency.
“I don’t know if you understand this or whether you are just mouthing the Democratic talking points,” Kennedy said to Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., who asked about cuts to Medicaid.
The health secretary testified that while Trump’s budget cuts would be “painful,” they were necessary to ease the federal government’s $2 trillion deficit.
Some of Kennedy’s statements did not comport with the facts. He told the Senate health committee that no current vaccines except those for COVID-19 had been tested against placebo. That prompted the committee chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy , R-La., who had left the room, to return to correct him.
“The secretary made the statement that no vaccines except COVID have been evaluated against placebo,” Cassidy said. “That’s not true. A rotavirus, measles and HPV vaccines have been.”
Kennedy’s assertion that he has “not fired any working scientists” flies in the face of reality. Hundreds of scientists from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have lost their jobs as part of his plan to overhaul the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Trump administration has also frozen or canceled scores of research grants at academic institutions, many of them from the National Institutes of Health, which falls under Kennedy’s purview. Columbia University alone has experienced significant cuts to more than 300 federal grants, many of them for medical research.
Trump has published only the broad outlines of his budget plan, which calls for deep cuts to the NIH and the CDC. In written testimony submitted to the committee, Kennedy said the cuts would save money “without impacting critical services.”
The budget blueprint, the statement said, “recognizes the fiscal challenges our country faces today, and the need to update and redirect our investments to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world.”
Republicans largely praised Kennedy, but their questions revealed that they, too, were somewhat uncomfortable with his changes. In the House, several asked about projects in their districts. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., who represents candy manufacturers, worried aloud that Kennedy’s plan to rid the food supply of certain petroleum-based dyes would cost his constituents money.
In the Senate, Cassidy called on Kennedy to articulate “a clearly defined plan or objective.” Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy despite intense misgivings about his views on vaccines. He had asked Kennedy to testify about the job cuts at the health department last month, but the secretary did not appear.
“Much of the conversation around HHS’s agenda has been set by anonymous sources in the media and individuals with a bias against the president,” Cassidy said. “Americans need direct reassurance from the administration, from you, Mr. Secretary, that its reforms will make their lives easier, not harder.”
That may be a tall order. A recent poll by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization, found that a majority of the public opposed major cuts to staffing and spending at the nation’s health agencies. A majority of Americans said the Trump administration was “recklessly making broad cuts to programs and staff, including some that are necessary for agencies to function.”