Here's what we covered
• US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was back on the Hill for two hearings today.
• He took questions from the Senate Finance Committee in the morning and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the afternoon.
• The hearings came as the White House has taken tighter control of HHS’s activities, with officials discouraging Kennedy and his aides from publicly discussing their efforts to overhaul vaccine policies.
Cassidy says measles focus is worthwhile, outbreak “grieves” him
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who has clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine rhetoric, said lawmakers’ focus on measles questions during a marathon run of health budget hearings was fair.
Cassidy spoke to reporters after the seventh and final budget hearing of the past week, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs.
“Any time children are dying from vaccine-preventable diseases [or] we have an increased incidence of reports, whatever the disease is, there should be focus,” Cassidy said. “We are a first-world country, and speaking as a physician that knows this can be prevented, it grieves me. It grieves me.”
Kennedy lamented during the hearing that “Every Democrat in this committee, all they wanted to do was talk about measles.”
He continued: “It’s all partisanship, it’s all tribalism, and it’s not real.”
Many Democrats grilled Kennedy across various hearings about measles outbreaks and his vaccine views, but Cassidy did, as well.
“Mr. Secretary, you have talked about restoring trust in the agency around the issue of immunization and people lost trust during the pandemic, but I think it’s safe to say the trust gap has worsened over the last year due to false statements about safety and efficacy of vaccines for preventable diseases like measles,” he said.
Cassidy told reporters after the hearing that “things were illuminating” but did not elaborate. He also declined to comment on when the committee will hold a vote on President Donald Trump’s pick for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means.
AI could make FDA “irrelevant,” Kennedy says
The HHS budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 includes a $2 million investment in artificial intelligence, which US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says has the potential to transform human health.
“AI is going to revolutionize medicine, and it may – some day, at some point — make FDA even irrelevant,” Kennedy said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. “It’s going to give us the capacity to develop new drugs and personalized medicine for every citizen.”
The US Food and Drug Administration has used AI to shorten the final review of some drug applications from 60 days to two hours, Kennedy said.
“AI is very dangerous, potentially, but also has the capacity to bring really great things to humanity, particularly in the realm of human health,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy defends Trump’s executive order on herbicide glyphosate
On Tuesday, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified to senators that the herbicide glyphosate causes cancer. But on Wednesday, Kennedy said at another congressional hearing that President Donald Trump’s executive order to promote the US supply of glyphosate will not cause more cancer among Americans.
The order is “not increasing production. It’s increasing domestic production to displace the Chinese production,” Kennedy said Wednesday.
Opposition to pesticides is a key pillar of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, and Kennedy leads the federal MAHA Commission.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, called out Kennedy’s changing position on glyphosate, saying he’s “folding” for companies that he said he would stand up against.
“Here’s the thing: When you were running to get the MAHA vote, you told people you would stand up to chemical companies, you would take carcinogens out of our agricultural system. You said that you would get these chemicals out of foods. That’s what you said you would do to make America healthy again,” Hassan said. “Rather than trying to work to find alternatives, rather than try to get him to limit that executive order, you just stood down instead of standing up.”
Kennedy refuted the claim that his stance has changed, citing a 2018 lawsuit he helped win against Monsanto, the maker of the glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup, alleging that the company knew that it caused cancer.
Kennedy defends military rollback of flu shot requirements
US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr defended a Pentagon decision, announced Tuesday, to remove requirements that service members get flu vaccinations.
“Secretary Hegseth was just recognizing that these soldiers being sent over to fight for our freedoms and that they should have some freedom too,” Kennedy told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, raised the Pentagon change and the harm it could do, saying the 1918 flu pandemic sickened 40% of American servicemembers during World War I.
“If you have a submarine full of people who we are counting on and a virus goes flying through it, we don’t have a ready military,” Murray said.
Kennedy argued that annual flu vaccines have a 20% efficacy rate and are “often ineffective.”
The efficacy of flu vaccines varies over the years and different strains of influenza, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 2025-26 flu season, which is coming to a close, the vaccines were 36% effective, on average.
Murray pressed Kennedy to monitor for flu outbreaks on military ships in the future. He replied that there are not specific programs for the military, “but we definitely monitor flu outbreaks.”
Kennedy says CDC director can make decisions independently
US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that whoever is appointed as the next director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be able to make decisions independently.
“There are currently political appointees at CDC who have worked to undermine trust in immunizations,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, said. He wanted Kennedy to ensure that the new director would “have the right to make decisions independently of those political appointees.”
“That’s correct,” Kennedy said.
But, he argued, Cassidy’s “characterization of the political appointees is wrong.”
In September, Cassidy led a hearing with fired US CDC chief Susan Monarez, granting her a high-profile platform to detail the internal clashes over vaccines that prompted Kennedy to oust her just four weeks after endorsing her appointment.
However, at a House hearing on Tuesday, Kennedy was less committal.
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) asked Kennedy about his support for Dr. Erica Schwartz, the administration’s current nominee to lead the CDC.
“If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?” Ruiz asked.
“I’m not going to make that kind of commitment,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy faces final committee in a marathon of congressional hearings
US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has wrapped his hearing with the Senate Finance Committee after nearly three hours.
This afternoon, he will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
It will be the last in a long string of congressional hearings for Kennedy over the past two weeks based around the proposed HHS budget for fiscal year 2027.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) who chairs the HELP Committee gave a key vote in support of Kennedy for his initial confirmation as HHS secretary, but the two have had a tumultuous relationship since, particularly over vaccine policy.
In September, Cassidy led a HELP Committee hearing with fired US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Susan Monarez, granting her a high-profile platform to detail the internal clashes over vaccines that prompted Kennedy to oust her just four weeks after endorsing her appointment.
Cassidy, meanwhile, is locked in a tight race for reelection against multiple Republicans who have criticized the two-term senator for voting to convict President Donald Trump in 2021 during the Senate’s impeachment trial. At this morning’s finance committee meeting, Cassidy did not question Kennedy about vaccines, instead focusing on health insurance.
China threat to US biotech industry is a “crisis,” Kennedy says
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that China’s growing role in drug development and biotech is a threat to the United States.
“They’re stealing our (intellectual property), they’re stealing our researchers, they’re stealing our best scientists,” Kennedy said on Wednesday at the Senate Finance Committee.
“It’s a crisis,” Kennedy said. “They’re threatening our biosecurity and our public health and our dominance in the area.”
Kennedy has faced a marathon of congressional hearings over the past two weeks about the proposed HHS budget for fiscal year 2027, and this topic came up multiple times.
On Tuesday at the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) asked Kennedy to address restrictions on biomedical research. Kennedy said that the administration is “compressing” pathways to expedite clinical trials and drug approval, but focused on the ways that the US is “losing ground” to global competition.
“We are at the cutting edge right now in terms of revolutionizing biomedical research in our country, but we’re losing our lunch to China,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also raised concerns about ethical violations he says are happening in Chinese labs and clinical trial site and poor conditions for workers.
“We are now doing inspections in China, so we’re dramatically ramping up our inspection of Chinese sites,” Kennedy said Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers challenge Kennedy claim that TrumpRx has world's lowest drug prices
Democratic senators sparred with Kennedy over whether Americans were getting lower prices on TrumpRx, the administration’s direct-to-consumer portal that launched in February.
“While the American people wait for their costs at the pharmacy to go down, the administration touts TrumpRx, which actually offers higher prices for drugs than what most people can get through their insurance,” said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. “There is no bigger fraud on the planet when it comes to drug costs than Donald Trump.”
But Kennedy argued that US patients are getting the best prices, at least on TrumpRx.
“Now they’re paying the lowest cost in the world rather than the highest,” he said, challenging the Democratic lawmakers to do more. “You can do this better than us. We did it because you wouldn’t act.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Protonix, which reduces stomach acid, is priced at $200 on TrumpRx, but the generic version is available at Costco for $16.
“If you’re buying a drug on TrumpRx, there is a more than 1 in 4 chance that Trump’s discount is actually a price hike,” she said.
Kennedy argued that TrumpRx offers the lowest prices for brand-name drugs.
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch pointed to lower drug prices he said are available in Germany, though Kennedy challenged that claim, reiterating that TrumpRx offers the best prices in the world for the most commonly used drugs.
TrumpRx, which is part of President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation effort to lower drug prices, allows patients to buy medications directly from manufacturers with cash, forgoing insurance. Eighty medicines are available on the portal, which notes that those with insurance might have even lower co-pays.
Kennedy to shake up key preventive services task force
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that he is soliciting new members for a key panel of agency advisers: the US Preventive Services Task Force, which recommends screenings for cancer, diabetes and heart diseases, behavioral counseling and other preventive care.
Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers must cover preventive services that get an A or B grade from the group at no cost to patients.
Kennedy said that the panel would expand beyond primary care doctors to specialists, would meet more often and provide more transparency. He promised Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, that he would not “undermine any of those functions,” though he had blasted the task force for “not doing its job” at another hearing the day before.
In a notice posted to the Federal Register that’s scheduled to be published Thursday, HHS is asking for nominations of new members, encouraging anesthesiologists, cardiologists, oncologists, radiologists and other specialists to apply. Some experts have raised concerns about adding specialists because they may not be as familiar with the wide range of preventive care and may have incentives to issue recommendations that could benefit their colleagues financially.
The task force has not met for more than a year and has been unable to advance recommendations that are under review or in development, concerning many preventive care experts. Five of its 16 members’ terms expired on January 1.
The USPSTF shakeup comes after Kennedy overhauled the agency’s highest-profile vaccine advisory group, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, replaced all of the committee’s members last year. The new panel made major changes to its vaccine recommendations.
"We advise every child to get the MMR" vaccine, Kennedy says
Multiple senators pushed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday to clarify his views on vaccines, particularly the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said that Kennedy was “pushing vaccine misinformation predating (his) tenure” and asked him to explain how he would reduce the number of measles cases and improve the MMR vaccination rate as the US faces record-breaking outbreaks and spread.
“We promote the MMR. We advise every child to get the MMR,” Kennedy responded.
Kennedy said that claims that he has spread vaccine misinformation were incorrect. “You’re just making things up, Senator. You’re just inventing stuff,” he said.
Ahead of the midterm elections, aides to President Donald Trump have sought to rein in Kennedy on efforts to overhaul vaccines and other core health policies.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Kennedy have previously clashed over vaccine policy, drawing a rift between the secretary and a key vote for his initial confirmation. But Cassidy did not question Kennedy about vaccines during the morning’s hearing with the Senate Finance Committee, instead focusing on health insurance.
Cassidy and Kennedy will meet again later today at a hearing with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Cassidy chairs.
Kennedy again insists Medicaid is not being cut
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once again told lawmakers that the Trump administration is not cutting Medicaid funding. He pointed to a recent Congressional Budget Office report that shows spending on the safety net program is expected to rise from $668 billion in 2025 to $981 billion in 2036, a 47% increase.
But it would have increased even more had congressional Republicans not approved the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer – to just over $1 trillion in 2035, the CBO estimated prior to the law’s enactment. The latest report projects that spending in 2035 will be $941 billion.
The “big, beautiful bill” – which implements the first-ever work requirement in Medicaid and limits states’ ability to finance the program, among other changes – is expected to slash spending on Medicaid by a total of $1.2 trillion between 2026 and 2035, the CBO projected. The historic cut means the safety net program won’t be able to keep up with costs, which could force states to further restrict eligibility or benefits, experts have said.
Kennedy also repeated his claim that no one who is legally enrolled in Medicaid will lose their coverage. The Republican package limits the eligibility of immigrants in the US legally.
The bill is expected to reduce Medicaid enrollment by 13.1 million people in 2035, with a sizeable share stemming from the new work requirement, the CBO estimates.
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, which was the subject of questioning by several lawmakers on the committee.
Drugmakers voluntarily agreed to provide lower prices to Medicaid, launch new drugs at the lowest cost available in peer countries, offer certain medications on TrumpRx, the administration’s direct-to-consumer online portal and invest in domestic manufacturing. 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.
