At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) questioned HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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00:00Mr. Secretary, and I am going to turn to the chair of the full committee, who we're honored to have
00:05here, as always, Senator Susan Collins for seven minutes for questioning. Thank you. Thank you very
00:14much, Madam Chair, and I thank the Vice Chair as well. Welcome, Secretary Kennedy. Secretary Kennedy,
00:23the military services submit to Congress what is known as an unfunded priorities list. It includes
00:34funding requests that were not included in the President's budget, but oftentimes we take from
00:42that list and do fund what the military was unable to get into the President's budget. And just to give
00:52you some idea, the unfunded priorities list range from more battleships to better housing for our
01:00troops to weapons R&D. It really covers the map. Your department's budget has been sharply cut by 26%
01:14below the fiscal year 2025 level. If you were required, as our military services are, to submit
01:25an unfunded priorities list, what would you include on it? That's a good question, Senator. I, you know,
01:34I would include the research that has been neglected for the past 20 years on chronic disease and what's
01:43caused us to go from 3% of Americans having, of children having chronic disease, when I was a little
01:50boy and my uncle was present, to 60% today. I would want to look at the, at the thousands, over 10,000
02:00chemicals that are now in our food. Most of them have never been tested. I'd want to look at what's
02:05causing the infertility crisis. Why are girls in this country reaching puberty six years early,
02:12uh, earlier than, earlier than historically? Why do boys in this country have half the testosterone
02:20teenagers of a 68-year-old man, half the sperm count of a 60-year-old man? I would want to do research
02:28on why our bees are disappearing, why 90% hive collapse happened, which is a food issue. I would
02:36want to look at the microbiomes in the soil and what's, and how that's contributing to erosion and,
02:43and how chemicals that we're using in agriculture are sickening farmers in many cases, potentially,
02:52and are destroying the microbiome and creating a, a situation where soil is running off and where
02:59most agronomists believe that we only have 60 harvests left. And I would want to look at why
03:07we're having an explosion in Alzheimer's in this country, not just curing it, but why, what is causing
03:12it? And I think NIH has done a very good job at, at making cancer more survivable. For example,
03:22colorectal cancer, where there's been extraordinary science done at NIH. Why isn't NIH asking the question,
03:32why do we have colorectal cancer in children? This is something that's new to humanity, and it was never
03:38known before. And now it's an epidemic in our children, and we need to have a balance where
03:44we're looking at cures for diseases, but we're also focusing on how to keep Americans healthy,
03:51so that we can beat these ruinous healthcare costs, and that we can have a healthy, productive society.
03:58Thank you. I want to turn to a couple of other issues. First of all,
04:03the LIHE program, which we've talked about, is absolutely vital for thousands of older Mainers
04:11and low-income families. It helps them avoid the constant worry of having to choose between keeping
04:18warm, buying essential foods and medications, and other basic necessities. Now, I was pleased to see the
04:27release of the rest of the fiscal year 2025 funds, but the administration's new budget
04:35seeks to eliminate what is truly a critical program. Will you work with this committee in trying to
04:45restore the LIHE program so that we can avoid literally seniors and low-income families not being
04:55able to keep warm in the winter? Yeah, absolutely, and I am from New England. Myself, my brother,
05:03for 40 years has run a Citizens Energy, which provides low-cost home heating oil to families in New
05:13England, and so many people have come to me over the years and said to me, thank you, your brother saved
05:19my life, because I didn't have to choose between food and heat. I was on the Navajo reservation three
05:26weeks ago, and Navajo President Bu Nygren said to me, if we cut at this point, if we cut LIHE, Navajo will
05:37die from it. So I understand the critical historical importance to this program. President Trump's
05:44rationale and OMB's rationale is that President Trump's energy policies are going to lower the
05:51cost of energy for this program so that everybody will get lower costs heating oil, and in that case,
05:57this program would simply be another subsidy to the fossil fuel industry. If that doesn't happen,
06:06then I would, and Congress chooses to appropriate the money, I of course will spend it. I've already
06:14directed the spending of $400 million in this year's budget to that, and I will work with you to make
06:20sure that those families do not suffer in that way. Thank you. You and I have had many conversations
06:29about Alzheimer's disease and the BOLD Act. I do want to point out the CDC's cooperative agreements
06:39for the Healthy Brain Initiative and three dementia public health centers of excellence under the BOLD Act
06:48are expected to, are set to expire at the end of September. We initially expected that the CDC
06:58would put out a notice encouraging applications early this year. Inexplicably, no such notice has been issued,
07:09even though we reauthorized the BOLD Act and funding is available under the appropriations measure that
07:16President Trump signed into law in March. How and when does HHS plan to issue this notice of
07:28funding opportunity so that we can continue what what has been a very effective approach to the Healthy
07:38Brain Initiative and Centers of Excellence. It helps caregivers. It encourages early diagnosis. It really
07:48has been an important program taking the kind of public health approach that you've generally supported.
07:56Yeah, um, Senator, I, because of the TRO from the federal judge on this issue that was issued last week, I'm, I've
08:06been on instructed by HHS and by White House attorneys that I can't speak directly to that part of the reorg.
08:14Um, you know, I have a strong personal commitment to, as I said before, to Alzheimer's, to dementia,
08:22uh, and it's affected members of my family and I understand how important these programs have been
08:29and whatever happens, we will continue that research. Thank you. Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Chair Capito.