Inside (the Beltway) Scoop

By: Ellen Kuo
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Congress Questions Secretary Kennedy About FY 2026 Budget for the Department of Health and Human Services

On the morning of May 14, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., appeared before the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. In the afternoon, he testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the first time the HHS Secretary has been before the committee in at least two decades, according to the Chairman Bill Cassidy. In the chair’s opening statement, he stated the department needs to work better for the American people and find ways to speed up approvals for life saving drugs, improve the delivery of healthcare services, and address the high levels of chronic disease while also holding bad actors accountable to lower the healthcare costs for Americans. He is quoted as saying, “Now people fear change even when it's from worse to better, but without a clearly defined plan or objective, people assume the worst. Much of the conversation about agenda has been set by anonymous sources in the media and individuals with a bias against the president.”

As the secretary fielded questions, Angela Alsobrooks, who was one of the last senators to ask her questions, stated, “I’ve been sitting through this hearing all day today, and have noticed that you’ve been unable in most instances to answer any specific questions relating to your agency.” She represents the state of Maryland, where the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is headquartered, and where she joined hundreds of protesters on May 10 to protest cuts to healthcare and medical research after the administration released a budget proposing a 40 percent cut to NIH, as reported by WUSA 9 news. Senator Patty Murray also had a long exchange with the secretary about a constituent of hers who was fighting stage four colorectal cancer and was enrolled in an NIH clinical trial. She had flown out to NIH for her first appointment and was told to come back in four weeks to start. Murray said the thoughtless mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS has caused the doctors at the clinical center to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks. She wanted to know how many staff members have been cut from the NIH’s clinical center. Kennedy responded to the senator to contact his office tomorrow for a specific answer, which she said was unacceptable. Kennedy said he wanted to help with her case. 

When asked about the reorganization happening at HHS, Kennedy said a lot of the reports that whole divisions have been liquated were just wrong. Instead, some divisions were being reassigned under the reorganization. He was under a constraint by his attorneys not to talk about any details of the reorganization due to a temporary restraining order issued in their case on the reorganization, where the plaintiffs contend that the executive branch cannot lawfully implement large-scale reductions in the federal workforce without the participation of Congress.

At the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related agencies subcommittee hearing with Chair Robert Aderholt, he said he wanted to learn more about the reform and reorganization of the HHS. He praised Kennedy for speaking eloquently to the American people about the urgent need for healthcare reform and the establishment of a new Administration for a Healthy America. He noted he was pleased to work with House Energy and Commerce committee colleagues to initiate reform proposals for NIH. This restructuring did not occur in the final fiscal year 2025 enacted appropriations law. However, Aderholt was encouraged to see the administration build off these reforms and wanted to hear more details. 

Ranking member Rosa DeLauro used her time to focus on the destruction of the crown jewels of our health system—NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She stated Kennedy and Elon Musk have fired or driven out nearly 5,000 personnel, including preeminent scientists, frozen billions of dollars in research to develop cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, women’s health, and the list goes on. She said China and Europe are taking advantage of this disaster by recruiting American scientists away from the United States. Disputing Kennedy’s assertion that HHS is simply rescaling the biomedical research budget, she accused the secretary of effectively cutting NIH research funding by $2.7 billion this year in compared to the same period last year, which includes a cut of 31 percent in cancer research. See Senator Bernie Sanders’ report released on May 12. She said that HHS reorganizing NIH is not within the secretary’s authority but that of Congress through conducting public hearings and engaging in a thoughtful process to incorporate the best ideas to advance NIH.

Kennedy explained in his answers that the exploding debt is a social determinant of health, and improving the nation’s health can’t be solved by throwing money at it when healthcare costs are increasing at a rate of two percent greater than the economy. Kennedy said the budget statement outlines many priorities, but he highlighted that mental health and addiction, which rival chronic disease, will remain at the top of the administration’s list. “We will fund cutting edge research at the NIH while cutting risky or nonessential services. That includes ending of gain of function experiments and research based upon radical gender ideology…” By eliminating DEI funding and redirecting resources, the country can move beyond lip service to historically excluded communities and take meaningful action to meet their needs. He also told DeLauro that HHS was not withholding any funding for lifesaving research. When asked about fully obligating funding that Congress appropriated for NIH research and to obligate the funds by September 30 of this year, or breaking the law by impounding congressionally appropriated funds, Kennedy said if Congress appropriates funds, he was going to spend it and he affirmed that Congress has the power of the purse. He also told the committee that he was phasing out most animal studies at NIH and FDA, which is a very expensive part of the biomedical research process. He also stated that NIH has been captured by industry, and it was due to the longevity of some of the leadership there and a ‘tremendous amount of corruption.’  He testified that the COVID-19 pandemic came out of research that was sent over to China. He blamed the fact that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s yet, due to corruption at NIH, where funding for research was directed at one specific hypothesis and shutting down alternative hypotheses.

Representative Julia Letlow focused on women’s health research and wanted to know specific actions HHS would take to build on existing programs and ensure this area of science continues. Kennedy said there are 42 maternal health programs throughout the agencies, and HHS is committed to this type of research after the New York Times reported that a 30-year woman’s health study at NIH was terminated, which he said was inaccurate but instead is an area the NIH director supports.