At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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00:00Thank you both again in this Congress. Secretary Kennedy, things are not going well. It's clear
00:05what you are doing across HHS is devastating to children, families, seniors, millions of Americans
00:12that HHS programs support. Now, you were required to send us an operating plan detailing how you
00:20are spending funds that Congress provided for programs that families rely on. You sent us what
00:25you titled the, quote, Hill version, which had over 530 asterisks in place of the funding levels.
00:33Mr. Secretary, we need the real version with actual funding levels. This committee needs to know how
00:39you are spending taxpayer dollars right now and what programs you are cutting and which you are
00:44eliminating. You are blocking billions in funding that Congress appropriated from going out the door,
00:50including $3 billion at NIH, $1 billion in Head Start, and $3 billion in child care funding alone.
00:57And that's on top of all the other funding you have illegally ripped away. $11 billion from state
01:03and local health departments, $1 billion supporting local substance use and mental health programs,
01:09and $66 million in Title X funds for cancer screenings, birth control, and preventive care.
01:15We know you're dismantling HHS and throwing away generations of investments in our health care
01:21system and firing critical employees. We are talking about the people who administer Head Start,
01:28LIHEAP, Meals on Wheels, or entire teams who are working on preventing chronic disease and Alzheimer's,
01:35tracking IVF success rates and safety, maternal health, more. On top of all of this, you propose a
01:41budget now with truly devastating cuts that would leave America sicker and weaker. But you're not
01:48waiting to see whether Congress approves that budget proposal. This administration is starting
01:54to unilaterally implement it right now in defiance of Congress and the laws we passed. If you aren't
02:02already, you're sprinting down the road of illegally impounding billions in funding through intentional
02:08action and incompetence. So to my colleagues on this dais, we heard several weeks ago from experts
02:16across the country what we risk by ceding American leadership on biomedical research. If we bless
02:22these staffing and funding cuts across HHS, that means deciding that we are comfortable with China
02:30leading the future development of every drug, device, and vaccine. The supply chain challenges we face
02:37during the pandemic will be the new normal. Our access to the latest treatments and cures will
02:43depend on other countries. It's time to stand up and assert Congress's authority. This committee has
02:49dedicated itself in a bipartisan manner over decades to make sure we are the global leader in research and
02:57development. And now all of us know this administration is now setting us back where it may take decades to
03:03regain that position. If we don't, decades of scientific breakthroughs and medical discovery
03:09and the bipartisan work to support them risks being burned to the ground, and it will be very, very hard
03:15for us to rebuild that. We should be setting this country up for failure. We have to do better.
03:21Now, Secretary Kennedy, listening to your testimony last week, frankly, left me pretty confused and concerned
03:28about what is happening at your department. You repeatedly claim that staffing and funding cuts
03:34that have been reported on publicly and even confirmed by your department staff are not happening.
03:40So either you're lying or you're not the one making the decisions. You said, and I quote,
03:45I made sure that Head Start was not cut. Later going on to say there should not be any delays. The funding is there.
03:52Well, Mr. Secretary, HHS is delaying billions in funding for Head Start and child care. These funding
04:00delays meant that a Head Start program in my state that serves more than 400 children had to close
04:05its doors and left parents scrambling. So let me ask you about another child care issue. Secretary
04:11Kennedy, whose decision was it to withhold child care and development block grant funding?
04:17Senator, I want to point out that in 2021, at the beginning of his administration, President Biden
04:27submitted his budget on May. You know what? You've made an accusation of me and I'm going to answer it.
04:32Okay, I appreciate that. On May 28th, he submitted his budget. So we're our budget. We're a new administration.
04:39Okay, you can go down that. I also want to point out. I have just two minutes left. I want to, I asked you a specific question.
04:44I want to point out something, Senator. You presided here, I think, for 32 years. You presided over the destruction
04:51of the health of the American people. Our people are now the sickest people in the world because you have not done your job.
04:59Mr. Secretary, seriously. That is an amazing...
05:02What have you done about it? What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?
05:07Mr. Secretary, you are here...
05:08Mr. Secretary, I would ask you to hold back and let the Senator ask the questions.
05:17Mr. Secretary, I'm asking you a question about child care. I'm asking you who made the decision to withhold child care and development block grant funding.
05:26That was made by my department.
05:28Okay. And you said last week, quote, we were not cutting thousands of scientists. We are not cutting clinical trials.
05:35But I want you to know, in the last four months, you've fired or pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH staff and terminated more than 1,600 NIH grants.
05:43That includes more than 240 clinical trials across the country.
05:49So whose decision was it to fire scientists and terminate these NIH grants and the clinical trial?
05:55Senator, I don't trust your information with all due respect. You told me two, what, three days ago or four days ago that we had cut a clinical trial in your state.
06:07And what you said turned out to be completely untrue. And you knew it was untrue because you corresponded with Jay Bhattacharya.
06:14Madam Chairman, I will answer that. It shouldn't take me, first of all, raising an issue with you face to make sure NIH is working its way through this.
06:23The woman that was in question, as I clarified to you at the last committee, was qualified for a clinical trial, unlike you stated.
06:32Untrue. Untrue.
06:33No, that is true.
06:34Untrue. She qualified this week. We shouldn't be talking about patients' private information anyway.
06:40I agree. And let's leave that. And I will just say your staff didn't get back to me until 45 minutes ago.
06:45We have the e-mails. We have the e-mails from your staff two weeks ago.
06:51Two weeks ago you were corresponding. What you said you knew was untrue when you said it to me.
06:56You came here to argue with me. I came here to ask you questions about your budget request.
07:01Your budget request is asking us to cut dramatically, but I am also making the point that Senator Baldwin made that what you are doing right now is enacting your budget that Congress has not passed by cutting critical funding across the board.
07:20And I think this committee will find that to be very detrimental in the future.
07:24Thank you, Madam Chair.
07:25Senator Hyde-Smith.
07:26Thank you, Chair Capito and Ranking Member Baldwin for this meeting.