Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced Congress for the first time since taking over the Department of Health and Human Services.
Today, RFK Jr. appeared before both the House and Senate in two separate committee hearings. Though the main thrust of Kennedy’s testimony concerned the upcoming HHS budget, the former environmental lawyer was also pressed to defend the administration’s ongoing—and legally contested—budget and staffing cuts as well as his stances on a variety of issues, including vaccination and abortion.
This morning, Kennedy spoke in front of the House Appropriations Committee. RFK Jr. was repeatedly asked about decisions made by the Trump White House to unilaterally pause or cancel funding already allotted to the federal government by the previous Congress. Though he reiterated that he would follow the law and spend the money appropriated to HHS, Kennedy also attempted to justify Trump’s cuts at times; other times, he promised that he has and would safeguard the most essential programs, such as Head Start and those related to tribal health, from current or future cuts.
True to his reputation, Kennedy also delivered some whoppers.
When asked about how he would further protect the health of Native Americans, RFK Jr. singled out ultra-processed food as a major factor behind their poorer health outcomes in particular. “Ultra-processed food is a genocide on the American Indian,” he stated.
In response to Representative Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.)’s question about how he would further the pro-life agenda, RFK Jr. said “every abortion is a tragedy.” Kennedy went on to boast that HHS has cut federal funding to programs overseas that fund, provide, or counsel people about abortions—a reinstatement of the so-called global gag rule.
Kennedy attempted to spin recent HHS funding and staffing cuts as a “rescaling” of the agency and its priorities. But Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) correctly noted that this rescaling has resulted in billions of dollars worth of cuts so far. According to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Minority Staff, the Trump administration has terminated at least $13.5 billion in health funding since taking over, including 1,660 grants awarded by HHS.
Kennedy has also overseen the planned elimination of 20,000 jobs and over a dozen agencies within HHS, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He and other officials have attempted to justify these cuts as part of a restructuring, with the responsibilities of SAMHSA and other shuttered agencies expected to be collapsed within a new organization called Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). This restructuring is currently on pause following a temporary restraining order placed by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston last week as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed against HHS by several union and public health organizations.
When asked by Rep. Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) how the elimination of agencies and programs related to minority health would improve the existing disparities among Americans, RFK Jr. argued that “Trump’s vision for the country is the same as Martin Luther King Jr.’s.”
Kennedy also refused to answer whether he would vaccinate his children against polio and chickenpox, arguing that his personal opinion was irrelevant and that he didn’t want to be seen as giving medical advice (he did state that he would probably vaccinate them against measles). Kennedy has infamously long misrepresented the safety of vaccines, particularly the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, for decades, and he has continued to state falsehoods about vaccines during his tenure at HHS.
“We are doing a better job at CDC today than any nation in the world controlling this measles outbreak,” Kennedy said at one point. It is true that many parts of the world are facing a resurgence of measles. But these current outbreaks in the U.S., now over 1,000 cases, are the worst seen stateside since 2019. And experts caution that measles is on the brink of returning to the U.S. permanently.
