Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives slammed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for cutting biomedical research and public health programs at two hearings today before key committees. But Republicans, who hold the majority on both committees, seemed to accept or even welcome the dramatic cuts.
The first hearing, held by the House appropriations subcommittee that holds the purse strings of key health agencies, was primarily focused on HHS’s budget request for the 2026 fiscal year that begins on 1 October. It proposes reducing spending at the $48 billion National Institutes of Health (NIH) by about 40% and making a 43% cut at the $9.2 billion Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also requests comparable cuts at other HHS agencies.
But lawmakers also delved into the sharp cuts in HHS staff and programs already made by President Donald Trump’s administration during its first 3 months. And their questions elicited another refusal by Kennedy to endorse childhood vaccination against measles, chickenpox, and polio.
Subcommittee Chair Robert Aderholt (R–AL) told Kennedy he is “encouraged” by reforms proposed for NIH and other agencies and that “we share your goal to make America healthy again.” Kennedy said he wants to “shift funding away from bureaucracy to direct impact.”
But Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT), the panel’s top Democrat, blasted Kennedy for what she called a “disastrous budget request” and for recent moves that she asserted are “wreaking havoc at every level.” She noted that HHS has cut CDC programs in areas such as chronic disease prevention and “decimated” the staff of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
DeLauro also noted that HHS has cut or pushed out nearly 5000 personnel at NIH and proposed cutting $18 billion from its budget. She pointed to a report released yesterday by Senator Bernie Sanders (I–VT) that sums up the cuts so far this year, such as a 31% reduction in cancer research.
Kennedy defended the cuts, saying his goal is to reduce the number of HHS staff to 2019 levels, before the agency’s workforce and budget ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. He claimed: “We are not withholding any funding for lifesaving research.”
He also said that “no agency head that I know wants to see his agency gutted or his budget lowered.” But he also said Trump “has a broader vision” to bring down the $2 trillion national deficit, which he called “a health crisis.”
DeLauro and Representative Steny Hoyer (D–MD) brought up concerns that NIH has spent $2.7 billion less so far this year than it had during the same period last year, according to the Sanders report. They repeatedly asked Kennedy to vow that he would spend 2025 funding for NIH and other agencies that has already been signed into law. Kennedy maintained that: “If you appropriate me the funds, I’m going to spend them.” Biomedical research advocates are deeply concerned that unspent funds will go back to the U.S. Department of the Treasury if NIH cannot follow through.
Hoyer asked Kennedy to describe the planning process behind the HHS cuts and the influence of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Kennedy said Musk “gave us help in figuring out where there was waste, fraud, and abuse,” but “it was up to me to make the decisions” and “there are many instances where I pushed back.”
Representative Mike Simpson (ID), a dentist, was among the few Republicans to question the NIH budget cuts and reorganization outlined in the White House’s request. Among other things, it calls for merging NIH’s dental institute into a new, larger institute—one of several that would absorb many current NIH institutes. Simpson worries NIH will implement the changes before Congress can review the plan. Kennedy said he did not know what the budget request “says about dental health,” but said he is committed to that research area.
Democrats on the panel repeatedly told Kennedy that only Congress can make the proposed organizational changes. “Any reorganizing of NIH must go through the Congress. … Mr. Secretary, you have no lawful authority to undertake this by yourself,” De Lauro insisted.
Representative Stephanie Bice (R–OK) asked about Kennedy’s “vision for NIH.” He said he is addressing “ossification” and “corruption,” including funding of research in China that he and others have claimed resulted in the release of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
NIH has also spent too much on the hypothesis that sticky brain plaques called amyloid underlie Alzheimer’s disease, Kennedy said. The hypothesis is based on “utter corruption,” he said, apparently a reference to some studies supporting the idea that were later found to have been fraudulent.
Democrats also focused on Kennedy’s tepid support for vaccines against the backdrop of more than 1000 measles cases in 30 U.S. states this year, only the second time this century that number has been exceeded. Three people have died, two of them children. Representative Mark Pocan (D–WI) asked Kennedy whether, if he had a child now, he would vaccinate that child against measles, chickenpox, and polio. Kennedy responded: “For measles, um, probably for measles.” He then declined to answer the question for the other two vaccines, saying, “I don’t want to give advice” that he is not medically qualified to dispense. “My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.”
All three vaccines have long track records of safety and effectiveness and have dramatically reduced the incidence of the diseases in this country. Virtually all cases in the current measles outbreak have occurred in unvaccinated people.
Kennedy also said, “In Europe, they don’t use the chickenpox vaccine.” In fact, 12 European countries and the United Kingdom do include it in their childhood vaccination schedules and in 2015 the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended it for all European Union members. In the United States, where the vaccine was introduced in the mid-1990s, chickenpox incidence has declined by more than 95%.
The exchange prompted De Lauro to scold Kennedy. “You have tremendous power over health policy,” she said. “I’m really horrified that you will not encourage families to vaccinate their children [against] measles, chickenpox, polio.”
