RFK Jr. to Defend HHS Overhaul as Democrats Denounce ‘War on Science’

Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a defiant protection on Wednesday of his drastic overhaul of federal well being businesses as Home Democrats accused him of violating the regulation by shuttering entire divisions and chopping funding appropriated by Congress for medical analysis.

“We’re not withholding cash for lifesaving analysis,” Mr. Kennedy insisted. After a fiery backwards and forwards, Consultant Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the highest Democrat on the Home Appropriations Committee, regarded disgusted. “Unbelievable,” she stated, shaking her head. “Unbelievable.”

He confronted related accusations from Consultant Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the previous Democratic chief.

The sharp exchanges on Wednesday morning got here throughout Mr. Kennedy’s testimony earlier than the appropriations panel, his first look on Capitol Hill since turning into well being secretary. He may even seem on Wednesday afternoon earlier than the Senate well being committee, whose Republican chairman will name on him to elucidate to Individuals how his reforms “will make their lives simpler, not tougher.”

The back-to-back appearances had been scheduled in order that Mr. Kennedy might promote President Trump’s finances for the Division of Well being and Human Companies for the following fiscal yr.

However he’s additionally going through sharp questions in regards to the big reductions he has already imposed on analysis grants and jobs, which key Democrats have condemned as a part of what they name Mr. Trump’s “conflict on science.”

Mr. Trump has printed solely the broad outlines of his finances plan, which requires deep cuts to the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. In his opening remarks to the Home committee, Mr. Kennedy stated that the cuts will lower your expenses “with out impacting vital providers,” based on a replica of his remarks.

The finances blueprint “acknowledges the fiscal challenges our nation faces at the moment, and the necessity to replace and redirect our investments to fulfill the wants of a quickly altering world.”

The remake of the well being division, engineered partially by Elon Musk and his crew on the Division of Authorities Effectivity, contains chopping 20,000 jobs — one-quarter of the well being work pressure. It additionally collapses total businesses, together with these dedicated to psychological well being and habit remedy, and emergency preparedness, into a brand new, ill-defined “Administration for a Wholesome America.”

Senator Invoice Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the well being committee chairman, is anticipated to name on Mr. Kennedy to articulate “a clearly outlined plan or goal,” based on an excerpt from his ready remarks. Mr. Cassidy voted to verify Mr. Kennedy regardless of intense misgivings about his views on vaccines.

Mr. Cassidy requested Mr. Kennedy to testify in regards to the job cuts on the well being division final month, however the secretary didn’t seem.

“A lot of the dialog round H.H.S.’s agenda has been set by nameless sources within the media and people with a bias in opposition to the president,” Mr. Cassidy’s remarks say. “Individuals want direct reassurance from the administration, from you Mr. Secretary, that its reforms will make their lives simpler, not tougher.”

Which may be a tall order. A latest ballot by KFF, a nonpartisan well being coverage analysis group, discovered {that a} majority of the general public opposed main cuts to staffing and spending on the nation’s well being businesses. A majority of Individuals stated the Trump administration was “recklessly making broad cuts to applications and employees, together with some which can be mandatory for businesses to perform.”

In anticipation of the listening to, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the rating member on the well being committee, launched a report on Tuesday that accused Mr. Trump of waging an “unprecedented, unlawful and outrageous assault on science and scientists.” The report discovered, as an illustration, that Mr. Trump lower most cancers analysis by 31 p.c over the primary three months of this yr, in contrast with the identical timeframe final yr.

“Trump’s conflict on science is an assault in opposition to anybody who has ever liked somebody with most cancers,” Mr. Sanders stated in an announcement. “The American individuals don’t want us to slash most cancers analysis so as to give extra tax breaks for billionaires.”

Mr. Kennedy, one of many nation’s most vocal vaccine skeptics, additionally confronted questions from Ms. DeLauro about his administration of a measles outbreak that started in West Texas, which has killed two unvaccinated youngsters and one grownup, and has now sickened greater than 1,000 individuals in 30 states, based on the C.D.C.

Mr. Kennedy has supplied solely a tepid endorsement of vaccination. He has acknowledged that vaccines are an efficient approach of stopping the unfold of measles. However he has insisted that the selection to vaccinate ought to be voluntary.

He has as a substitute promoted treating the illness after an infection with different therapies, together with cod liver oil, which comprises vitamin A — a treatment that docs stated had sickened some youngsters who took an excessive amount of of it. Ms. DeLauro accused him of “selling quackery.”

Democrats are additionally anticipated to press Mr. Kennedy on how the cuts are affecting scientific trials.

Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, who serves on the well being committee however can also be the highest Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, hosted a round-table dialogue final week at Seattle Youngsters’s Analysis Institute to place a highlight, her workplace stated, on “what’s at stake for sufferers and households as Trump takes a wrecking ball to this analysis.”

In an emailed assertion on Tuesday, Ms. Murray complained that Mr. Kennedy was “overdue to testify” after “no-showing” when Mr. Cassidy invited him in April.