A dramatic overhaul of federal health equipment rewinded scientists and patients, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces demands from the Republican chairman of the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday, explaining to Americans that his reforms will “make their lives easier, not more difficult.”
Kennedy will testify as the health secretary for the first time on Capitol Hill, going back to the House and Senate to promote President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services budgets. But he is also called to defend the massive cuts he has already imposed on research grants and work that major Democrats have denounced as part of what Trump calls “science war.”
Trump has only published a broad overview of his budget plan, calling for deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy is expected to say that cuts will save money “without impacting important services,” according to comments he is trying to reach the House Budget Committee.
The budget blueprint states that Kennedy's statement “recognizes the financial challenges our country faces today and the need to update and redirect investments to meet the rapidly changing needs of the world.”
The Ministry of Health remake, designed in part by Elon Musk and his team of government efficiency, includes a cut in employment of 20,000 people. This is a quarter of the health workforce. It also disintegrates the entire institution, including institutions dedicated to mental health and addiction treatment and emergency preparation, falling into a new, unclear “management of a healthy America.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Louisiana Republican and Health Committee, is expected to call on Kennedy to clarify “a well-defined plan or objective,” according to an excerpt from his prepared remarks. Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy despite intense anxiety about his views on the vaccine.
Cassidy asked Kennedy to testify about cutting jobs at the Health Department last month, but the secretary didn't show up.
“Many of the conversations on the HHS agenda are set up by anonymous sources in the media and individuals with bias against the president,” says Cassidy. “Americans need a direct sense of security from the administration. From your secretary, they need that reforms to make their lives easier and not difficult.”
It could be a tall order. A recent poll by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research institute, found that the majority of its citizens opposed mass cuts in staff and spending at the national health agency. The majority of Americans said the Trump administration is “recklessly cutting back on the widespread cuts of programs and staff.”
In anticipation of the hearing, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a ranking member of the Health Committee, released a report Tuesday that he accused Trump of “unprecedented illegal and outrageous attacks on science and scientists.” For example, Trump found that he cut cancer research by 31% in the first three months of this year compared to the same time slot last year.
“Trump's science war is an attack on anyone who has loved someone with cancer,” Sanders said in a statement. “The American people don't want to cut cancer research to reduce more tax cuts for billionaires.”
According to the CDC, Kennedy, one of the nation's most vocal vaccine skeptics, could also face doubts about the management of the outbreak of measles that began in West Texas.
Kennedy has only provided slippery approvals for vaccinations. He acknowledges that vaccines are an effective way to prevent the spread of measles. However, he argues that the choice to receive vaccinations should be voluntary.
He instead promoted treatment of post-infectious diseases with alternative therapies that included cod liver oil, which contained vitamin A.
In the House where Kennedy appears before the Appropriations Committee, Democrats will argue that he, Trump and Musk are destroying “the crown jewels of our health system.”
Rosa Delauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, could focus on reducing scientific research aimed at understanding and developing treatments for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. The aide said that cutting off basic research funded by the NIH “destroys the future healthcare pipeline.”
Democrats also push Kennedy how the cuts are affecting clinical trials.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who works for the Health Committee and is also a top Democrat on the Budget Committee, shining the spotlight last week with a roundtable discussion at the Seattle Children's Research Institute.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, Murray complained that Kennedy “is not waiting to testify” after a “no show” when Cassidy invited him in April.
