What we're covering here
• US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is back on the Hill for two hearings today.
• He’s taking questions from the Senate Finance Committee and will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at 2 p.m. ET.
• The hearings come as the White House has taken tighter control of HHS’ activities, with officials discouraging Kennedy and his aides from publicly discussing their efforts to overhaul vaccine policies.
Kennedy's response to measles outbreaks draws mixed partisan responses
Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, thanked HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his help bringing the measles outbreak in his home state under control. The outbreak is the largest the US has had since measles was declared eliminated more than two decades ago. The outbreak will officially end if no new cases are detected before Sunday, about six months after it started.
“I know without a question we would not be on the right side of this outbreak without your leadership and without your help,” Scott said, citing regular communication with state leadership and deployment of CDC staff.
However, many Democratic lawmakers have confronted Kennedy about the ways they say his rhetoric and views on vaccines have negatively affected the situation.
“When it comes to vaccines, Robert Kennedy has used this once-in-a-lifetime platform to make parents doubt themselves and doubt their doctors,” ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in his opening statement. “The Secretary has ducked, bobbed and weaved without taking responsibility of saying what needs to be said: Vaccines save lives in America.”
More than 90% of the measles cases in the South Carolina outbreak, and nationwide, have been among people who are not vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. HHS provided $1.4 million in requested aid to South Carolina to support the measles response. Additional on-the-ground support came about five months into the outbreak.
Wyden pushes Kennedy to release details on Most Favored Nation drug deals
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to release details about the deals that the Trump administration has inked with more than a dozen drug manufacturers to lower their prices.
“The details, the important facts about these deals are totally secret,” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said at a hearing with Kennedy. “The only thing that’s clear is the list of goodies that the companies got in exchange.”
In a heated exchange, Wyden asked Kennedy if he would commit to releasing the written agreements with the pharmaceutical companies on Thursday.
The secretary said he could not do so because they contain proprietary information and trade secrets. He later told Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, that he would release all details except for proprietary information and trade secrets.
Kennedy lambasted Wyden and congressional Democrats for not doing more to pressure drug companies to reduce prices.
“You have a lot more power to negotiate. Why don’t you just go do it?” Kennedy responded.
The Trump administration is asking Congress to codify his “Most Favored Nation” deals. Drugmakers voluntarily agreed to provide lower prices to Medicaid, launch new drugs at the lowest cost available in peer countries and offer certain medications on TrumpRx, the administration’s direct-to-consumer online portal. In exchange, the companies will not be subject to tariffs on pharmaceutical imports for three years.
Wyden and 17 Senate Democrats introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require the administration to release the terms of the deals. A Democrat-led Congress in 2022 approved allowing Medicare to negotiate prices on certain drugs for the first time.
Another lawmaker pushes RFK Jr. on comments on 're-parenting' Black kids
During today’s Senate Finance hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden brought up a contentious exchange with Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, from an earlier hearing. Last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denied that he said Black children should be “re-parented” if they received treatment for conditions including ADHD.
Kennedy had said on a podcast, “Psychiatric drugs, which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence. And those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented — to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people.”
Research suggests that across all mental health conditions, Black children tend to be less likely to receive treatment than White children, including antidepressants.
More physicians on deck to question Kennedy
On Tuesday, Kennedy appeared before a House Energy and Commerce Committee suncommittee, which includes five physicians and two pharmacists.
Most of those members are Republicans who largely centered their questions on health care costs and transparency. The two Democrats — California Rep. Raul Ruiz and Washington Rep. Kim Schrier — grilled the secretary on vaccine policy and whether Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new nominee to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would have autonomy over her agency’s vaccine decisions.
Kennedy will testify before three more doctors today, all Republicans. Senate HELP Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and HELP member John Barrasso of Wyoming have previously expressed alarm about Kennedy’s vaccine changes and the confidence Americans have in immunizations. In contrast, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall has called for a review of the childhood vaccine schedule and told Kennedy in a hearing in September that “the hepatitis B vaccine makes no sense to me.”
Cassidy and Marshall are on both the Finance and HELP committees, giving them plenty of time on Wednesday to pursue those questions again.
Kennedy’s week of budget hearings
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears before two Senate committees Wednesday, concluding a marathon of seven budget hearings over the past week.
Lawmakers have grilled the secretary on vaccine policy, measles outbreaks, shakeups at various health agencies and, of course, a proposed budget that would slash health care spending.
In prior hearings, Kennedy has defended the proposed budget cuts as necessary to reduce the national deficit and argued that reduced coverage in federal programs such as Medicaid is a result of rooting out inenligble enrollees.
Several Democrats have used their time with the secretary to criticize the ongoing war in Iran — questioning both President Trump’s mental aptitude and the government’s spending on the war, in contrast to proposed cuts across HHS.
Members of the Senate Finance and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee are likely to hit on those broader health care issues as well Wednesday. But Kennedy’s appearance before the HELP Committee this afternoon could also see a discussion of the panel’s stalled vote on surgeon general nominee Dr. Casey Means.
