Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to tell Congress that cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget and workforce are necessary to reduce bloat and improve efficiency.
“Without duplication of resources, and reduced bureaucracy, HHS can use federal dollars to more directly impact the lives of those served by HHS programs.”
Kennedy has also overseen a major restructuring of HHS, with nearly 20,000 employees being terminated or otherwise leaving, and a number of divisions being reorganized.
“We must remake the government to maximize efficiency and productivity in order to fulfill the President’s promise to Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy’s prepared statement reads.
“This budget allows us to do our part to restore fiscal responsibility to the federal government while optimizing HHS’s ability to improve and save American lives. The reductions made are necessary to right-size the Department’s budget, which has ballooned by about 40 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Kennedy is scheduled to appear before the House Appropriations Committee in Washington at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
He will then answer questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the afternoon.
It’s the first time Kennedy will testify to Congress since he was sworn in as health secretary, capping a path that saw the former Democrat leave the party to run for president as an independent, drop out of the 2024 race to endorse Trump, and shift from leading the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense to helming HHS, which has typically had the largest budget of any federal agency.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a doctor and the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, and other members of the committee have repeatedly expressed concerns in recent months about the growing outbreak of measles in the United States.
Kennedy has said that health authorities recommend vaccination with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, but has also said the shot has problems, such as side effects and gradual waning. He’s also said the outbreaks in the country are on the decline.
Kennedy is “taking measles seriously, as he should,” James O'Neill, who has been nominated as deputy health secretary, told senators during a hearing on May 8.
“I don’t agree that he’s taking measles seriously at all,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) replied.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said later in the hearing that Kennedy has failed to live up to his pledge of radical transparency.
Lawmakers also indicated they plan to ask Kennedy about the HHS effort to study autism, which Kennedy has said will reveal the causes of the developmental disorder.
Kennedy’s prepared remarks for the Senate panel have not been released. In his opening statement to the House, he did not mention measles, autism, or vaccines.
Kennedy did highlight a change in priorities for National Institutes of Health funding to researchers across the nation, saying the budget moved the agency’s focus away from “radical gender ideology” and research that makes pathogens more dangerous to areas that support the Make America Healthy Again agenda, which includes removing chemicals from food.
He also said that during the previous administration, HHS “became a collaborator in child trafficking for sex and slavery” by not properly vetting sponsors for illegal immigrant children who arrived in the country without a parent or guardian.
“We have ended that,” he said.
