Full RFK Jr. hearing: Vaccines, HHS budget cuts, Trump and the 25th amendment

[0:00] the committee will please come to order a quorum is present the committee meets today in pursuant [0:06] to notice and without objection the chair may recess the committee at any point at a time when [0:13] americans are facing rising health care costs declining public trusts and worsening rates of [0:21] chronic disease strong leadership at hhs is more important than ever under secretary kennedy hhs [0:30] is taking bold and decisive action to make america healthy again health care is a critical part of [0:38] the equation yet for too many families the cost of care continues to rise while transparency remains [0:46] out of reach patients and employers are too often left in the dark unable to make informed choices [0:53] about price and quality that's unacceptable americans deserve clear and upfront pricing that will help [1:03] drive competition and lower costs this committee remains focused on strengthening transparency [1:11] and ensuring the system works for patients not against them and we're glad to have the partnership [1:20] of this hhs to help accomplish those goals but access to health care is only one piece of the puzzle [1:29] health begins long before a patient enters a doctor's office it starts with nutrition prevention and daily [1:36] choices under secretary kennedy's leadership hhs has righted the food pyramid and delivered scientifically [1:45] sound dietary guidelines for americans these are critical steps toward building a stronger foundation [1:53] for public health particularly for children this is also an era where the committee has led we restored [2:01] access to healthy full-fat dairy in federal child nutrition programs ensuring children receive the minimum [2:09] they need to grow and thrive health is also shaped by environments in which we live [2:16] strengthening high quality early childhood education and care programs that working parents rely on [2:23] and protecting them from waste fraud and abuse helps create a culture of learning and care where our [2:30] children can thrive at the same time restoring focus and accountability in these programs is critical to [2:38] earning the public's trust taxpayer dollars should support children and families not advance ideological [2:46] initiatives this is particularly true of dei driven mandates and gender ideology that have saturated our [2:54] society policies that promote or subsidize irreversible medical interventions on minors raise serious concerns [3:04] both medically and ethically sex rejecting procedures and mutilating chemical treatments are an abominable use of [3:13] federal taxpayer dollars and tear at the very fabric of american society i'm very glad to see hhs taking [3:22] steps to combat this and ensure that the well-being of children not politics remains the focus finally i want to [3:31] commend the department for also making america fiscally healthy again the department's budget proposal reigns [3:38] in a bloated unaccountable bureaucracy by restructuring hhs to refocus on core principles all while saving taxpayers [3:47] 1.8 billion dollars every year in other words hhs is doing more with less that's exactly the kind of [3:56] governance the american people expect and deserve at the end of the day this is about people families trying to afford care [4:08] parents trying to raise healthy children and communities striving for a better future the policies we shape [4:16] here have real consequences in each of their lives we have a responsibility to get this right and i certainly [4:25] appreciate secretary kennedy's willingness to take on these challenges and i look forward to working together [4:31] to build a healthier stronger future for every american with that said i yield to the ranking [4:38] member the gentleman from virginia mr scott for his opening statement thank you mr chairman and thank you [4:45] secretary kennedy for your testimony this morning your appearance before the committee today as they say [4:54] has been a long time coming secretary you lead an agency that has immense responsibility to both enhance [5:01] and protect america's well-being the mission of our of the department of health and human services is to [5:08] embrace the health and well-being of all americans by providing for effective health and human services [5:15] and by fostering sound sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine public health and social [5:21] services this mission is why many get involved in public service in the first place this is in part [5:28] why president by the president's words the other day were so shocking as president trump said and you can see [5:36] on over my shoulder we're fighting wars it's not possible for us to take care of daycare medicaid [5:45] medicare all these individual things they can do it on a state basis you can't do it on a federal level you [5:54] have to take care of one thing military protection and regrettably the proposed budget that you're here [6:01] to defend today reflects that sentiment overall the white house's proposed budget reduces hhs discretionary [6:11] budget authority by about 15.8 billion dollars or 12.5 percent if these proposed cuts are enacted we will [6:20] have depth it will have devastating consequences for americans health and well-being and will raise [6:27] costs for america's families take americans healthcare for example the proposed budget cuts [6:33] excuse me target public health agencies such as the center for disease control and prevention [6:39] and the national institutes for health weakening the systems that communities rely on to prevent disease [6:46] and respond to crisis additionally thanks to the cuts from hr1 or what we refer to as the big ugly bill [6:55] policies of this administration and policies of this administration americans are now paying more to [7:01] see a doctor and to fill prescriptions americans should not have to go into debt just in order to stay [7:07] healthy the department should be focusing on ensuring affordable accessible health coverage for as many [7:14] people as possible regrettably when fully implemented the actions taken by this congress and administration [7:21] will reduce the number of people insured by about 15 million as a direct result of this administration's [7:27] policies and priorities the cost of living has been has become increasingly unaffordable moreover the [7:35] president has recklessly gotten us into another war in the middle east causing energy prices to skyrocket [7:41] and as those energy prices skyrocket your budget would eliminate the low-income home energy assistance program [7:48] LIHEAP which helps millions of families stay warm in the winter and and cool in the summer reducing the risk of [7:56] health and safety problems arising from safe safe heating and cooling situations [8:03] similarly american families are struggling to find safe affordable child care intruders word that it is not possible for us to take care of daycare [8:12] the president's budget proposes flat funding both head start and the child care development block grant [8:18] even though current funding levels serve only a small fraction of eligible children and when adjusted [8:25] for inflation flat funding would likely result in fewer children actually served in addition the president's [8:32] budget would completely eliminate the preschool development grant which helps states improve the quality and safety [8:38] of child care programs and ensures all children can arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed last year hhs illegally [8:47] withheld funds from head start facilities nationwide pushing many head start programs to the brink [8:53] and earlier this year hhs froze over 10 billion dollars in congressionally appropriated funds for five [9:00] democratic-led states which also impacted child care development funds and the temporary assistance for needy [9:07] families tano these actions were not without victims many child care providers and grantees are already [9:14] operating on shoestring budgets and without federal support child care centers may have to close and when [9:20] they do the parents are left in the lurch without access to child care in times like these the social [9:28] safety net programs provide struggling families a lifeline or these programs have either been taken away or scaled [9:35] back under your leadership cutting these programs doesn't make the cost of child care food or health [9:41] go away it only shifts the burden onto the households that can least afford them last thing i want to address [9:48] the growing concerns of dis americans with disabilities who have been acutely impacted by your department's [9:55] policies and priorities last year you targeted the administration for community living an office that houses [10:02] several key programs for people with disabilities as well as seniors the loss of acl would not merely be [10:09] a bureaucratic shift its proposed elimination sent a clear message that the rights and safety of people [10:16] with disabilities and older adults who are no longer a priority for hhs after more than 50 years of [10:23] bipartisan progress towards independent living and equal opportunity the proposed dismantle of acl takes this [10:30] country backwards last august i released a report detailing how the administration has undermined programs such [10:37] as centers for independent living and assisted technology moreover the big ugly bills deep cuts to medicaid [10:44] will inevitably reduce home and community-based services of various support that allows people with [10:51] disabilities to live independently i'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter that report into the record without [10:58] objection objection objection and hearing none you'll be honored thank you additionally your proposed [11:04] budget uh eliminated the chronic disease self-management education and fall prevention programs effective [11:11] programs that seniors across the country have come to rely on when services are cut families face [11:17] face impossible choices people risk losing their independence and so i ask you to reconsider your position [11:24] and recommit to fully supporting people with disabilities and older americans so mr secretary i want today's [11:31] discussion to focus on how we can actually fulfill hhs's mission and your commitment as citizen our commitment [11:38] of citizens to care for one another regrettably i fear that this budget proposal will not serve that goal [11:45] thank you and i yield back i thank the gentleman pursuant to committee rule 8c all members who wish to insert [11:55] written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk electronically [12:00] in microsoft word format by 5 pm 14 days after this hearing and without objection the hearing record will [12:08] remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material noted during the hearing to [12:15] be submitted for the official hearing record i'll now turn to the introduction of today's witness the [12:22] honorable robert f kennedy jr secretary of the u.s department of health and human services mr secretary [12:30] we are grateful to have you here today thank you so much as you're aware it's your responsibility to [12:36] provide accurate information to the committee pursuant to committee rules i would ask that you limit your [12:42] oral presentation to a five-minute summary of your written statement and with that mr secretary you're [12:49] recognized for your testimony thank you for that chairman walberg and ranking member scott members [13:01] of the committee i um i appreciate you all coming i know a lot of you had a late night and uh ranking [13:08] member scott thank you for taking time to talk to me here earlier this week and thank you for the [13:14] opportunity to be here here to discuss the president's fiscal year 2027 budget request we stand at a [13:22] generational turning point our children of the sickest generation in modern history and decades [13:28] of failed policy captured agencies and profit-driven driven systems caused it parents across the country [13:35] demanded change and we are delivering it we are ending the era of federal policies that fueled the [13:42] chronic disease epidemic and replacing them with policies that put the health of americans first [13:48] president trump and i are challenging the status quo and the institutions that defend it as we work to [13:54] make america healthy again in just 15 months hhs has delivered historic wins we negotiated the most [14:02] favored nation drug prices with 16 of the largest pharmaceutical companies so americans no longer pay more [14:11] than other people in wealthy countries for the exact same medications we are bringing real transparency to [14:17] health care pricing so patients know the cost of care before they receive it i use the full convening [14:25] power of the federal government to bring health insurance ceos to the table and reform prior authorization [14:31] we are cutting red tape speeding decisions and demanding transparency we're also cracking down on [14:39] waste fraud and abuse this year hhs and usda issued the new dietary guidelines that put real food whole [14:46] food at the center of the american plate we flipped the food pyramid upside down and sent a clear message [14:52] to the american people eat real food hhs has also opened the door to partnerships with the industry trade [15:01] associations non-profit and advocacy organizations more than 50 medical schools have committed to expand [15:09] nutrition education from an average of just two hours to 40 hours food manufacturers are stepping up too [15:16] more than 40 percent of the food industry is committed to phase out petroleum-based dyes by year end [15:22] many have already eliminated them we're also working with the 400 top tech companies to end [15:31] information blocking and they've all pledged to do so and americans are already seeing the benefits [15:38] in conjunction with these efforts fda approved six natural food colorings derived from fruits and vegetables [15:44] through president trump's great american recovery initiative hhs is matching compassion with [15:51] action to help americans break the cycle of addiction hhs we are prioritizing patients with ultra rare [15:58] diseases and their families and driving faster access to life-saving treatments we're restoring gold [16:05] standard science and integrity across the agency we're protecting children from sex rejecting procedures [16:11] vaccines that expose them to irreversible harm or eliminating outdated and misleading warning [16:18] labels on hormone therapies used to treat women during menopause or strengthening oversight of organ [16:25] procurement or implementing operation stork speed to ensure the safety and quality of infant formula [16:32] we're applying that same focus and urgency to rural america the rural health transformation fund [16:37] delivers the largest investment in rural health in our nation's history 50 billion dollars over five [16:44] years the strength in rural hospitals and ensure that americans can access the care they need no matter [16:50] where they live members of congress on both sides of the aisle have made rural health a clear priority in [16:57] their conversations with me because every state is feeling the strain of hospital closures workforce shortages [17:04] and gaps in access hhs announced more than 135 million investment this month alone to expand rural residency [17:13] programs from a completely different program and nutrition services the data is clear when physicians [17:20] train in rural communities they're far more likely to stay and serve there the president's budget also puts [17:27] these priorities into action it invests in prevention because preventing disease costs less and delivers better [17:35] outcomes than treating it as my uncle president john f kennedy said progress is a nice word but change [17:43] is its motivator and change has its enemies we see those forces clearly entrenched interests defenders of [17:51] failing status quo and institutions that put profit ahead of the american people the resistance underscores the [17:59] urgency of this moment we can reverse chronic disease improve public health and lower costs [18:05] i stand ready to work with this committee in congress to seize this opportunity to implement and codify [18:13] lasting generational reform in american health care for our country for our children and for the health [18:19] of the american people together we can make america healthy again thank you thank you mr secretary under [18:28] committee rule 9 we will now question secretary kennedy under the five-minute rule and i might make mention [18:35] mr secretary that this committee while it's known for being passionate in its its questioning and its [18:42] debate um it's still so far this term has followed the example that we could have a second grade class [18:49] turn in and watch our our meetings and our hearings and our questionings and the teacher wouldn't have to [18:54] turn it off uh and i think that will be the case today but that will be refreshing chairman it'll it'll be [19:01] firm and it'll be strong i trust it'll continue to be respectful i'll now recognize myself for five [19:09] minutes of questioning there is a burning question in inquiring minds as i understand it to to hear you [19:18] answer the question as to whether you're responsible for the measles outbreak let me ask that question thank [19:25] you mr chairman and uh i've been accused of that uh the accusement is not the accusation is not science-based [19:33] measles outbreak began in january 2025 before i took office now almost 90 percent the people affected [19:40] are over five years old so they made the decision not to vet their decision to not vaccinate predated my [19:47] my um my uh occupation of this seat we've done better the measles outbreak is not an american phenomena [19:58] it is global it's happening all over the world and we've done better under my leadership than any country [20:04] in the world and limiting it last year we had 2200 approximately 2200 cases mexico had almost three [20:14] more than three times that number and they have one third of our population canada had double that [20:21] number and they have one eighth of our population europe had almost 10 times that number and they only [20:28] have double of our population many other countries have lost their uh elimination status canada lost it [20:36] written lost it these are countries i haven't visited in years many european countries have lost it [20:43] austria and others i want to say something because two little girls died tragically in the mennonite [20:50] community in texas mennonites have not vaccinated since 1796 oh this has nothing to do with me i went to [20:59] the funeral of one of those little girls and i spent a day with the family of the other and both of them [21:05] told me that when they took their children to the hospital they were treated as pariahs they were [21:12] shamed uh they're they were not given proper treatments both families believe their daughters [21:18] and their their own doctors believe their daughters could have been saved if the hospital gave them [21:24] proper treatment the fact that they did not have a proper treatment to give them is regulatory practice [21:30] by this agency this agency has been so focused on a single intervention and it does not advise doctors [21:39] about how to treat people who are actually sick there's a lot of people in this country who for [21:44] religious reasons or other reasons are not going to vaccinate i believe that we need to treat them [21:50] with compassion and understanding and empathy and get them the treatments that they would get [21:56] anywhere else in the world except for this country thank you as part of the trump administration's [22:05] effort to return education to the states and put power back into the hands of parents and families [22:11] as well hhs has signed a number of interagency agreements with the department of education [22:16] to administer medical accreditation and early childhood education and care programs please [22:23] say more about why it makes sense to run these programs out of hhs well some of these programs should have [22:30] always been in under hhs purview it just makes more sense their health related programs rather [22:38] than particularly educated programs and we have many parallel programs at hhs that can benefit from [22:47] synergies from each other the uh the decision is also within the purview of the deo e secretary linda mcmahon [22:57] and she has power to contract out these functions and other agency and it's a broad power and she's operating [23:06] under that there have been troubling reports of states uh removing children from their parents care [23:15] when those parents decline to support their child's self-identification uh or uh identification as [23:23] another sex do parents have the right to raise their children according to their sincerely held [23:31] religious beliefs or moral convictions president trump believes that they do and during the biden [23:38] administration the biden administration hhs sent out letters to states to pass legislation to prohibit [23:46] people who had certain religious beliefs from being able to foster children this turns out to have been a [23:52] very very large pool of people and as a result of that we've the ratio between children foster children [24:01] and parents has dropped to two to one our objective by the end of my administration here and the trump [24:08] administration is to get us back to a one-to-one ratio and we have sent out letters to all the states [24:16] and that policy thank you my time has expired i now recognize the gentleman from connecticut uh mr courtney [24:27] thank you uh thank you mr chairman mr secretary after 14 months on the job your long overdue appearance before [24:33] this committee is particularly pertinent given the fact that your uncle john f kennedy served on this [24:38] committee for his entire six years as a house member representing the 11th district of massachusetts [24:43] as his national archive bio states as a house member he advocated expanding health care for all [24:49] and as president in 1961 he supported passage of medicare legislation the king anderson bill which was [24:55] ultimately enacted in 1965 by his successor that transformational federal law provided universal [25:01] insurance for seniors at a time when only 50 percent could afford health insurance and over time it [25:07] has vastly improved the health and life expectancy of our nation your other uncle senator ted kennedy who [25:14] i'm proud to say campaigned for me when i was first elected to congress by a whopping margin of 83 votes [25:20] declared quote universal health care is the cause of my life and was lead sponsor of the affordable care act [25:25] when it was introduced in 2009 he did not live to see its enactment but we know now that the aca successfully [25:32] cut the uninsured rate in half by 2024 prior to your arrival at hhs clearly universal health care is not [25:40] the cause of your life on your watch at hhs we've seen a massive jump in the uninsured population since [25:46] january 2025 1.2 million have already lost coverage thanks to the trump administration's refusal to extend the [25:54] aca enhanced tax credits even though we passed a bipartisan bill in the house to do so a couple [26:01] of days ago the wall street journal reported that that 1.2 million number is going to continue to grow [26:07] because 14 of new enrollees this year didn't make their first payments for the new trump premiums as [26:13] the journal reported this will add millions more to the ranks of the uninsured even worse with the passage [26:20] of the misnamed one big beautiful bill cbo reports another 10 million at least will lose their coverage [26:26] as states are forced to implement the largest cut to medicaid in american history according to gallup two [26:32] weeks ago the affordability of health coverage has now jumped to the top domestic policy concern facing [26:38] americans which is pretty striking given the fact that the cost of housing groceries and gas to get to [26:43] work has skyrocketed under this administration but they're right to be concerned about the expense [26:50] of trying to maintain insurance coverage because they know when you lose health insurance [26:55] you miss routine checkups preventive tests and scans for cancer and heart disease [26:59] and inpatient care if needed slashing health insurance affordability does not make america [27:05] healthy nor more economically secure at an easter luncheon a couple of weeks ago mr trump stated [27:11] that quote it's not possible for the federal government to pay for medicare and medicaid it's up to [27:15] the states to take responsibility for those programs as the person in charge of cms [27:20] and after 60 years of operation as a federal program which by the way your father voted for [27:26] in 1965 when he was a senator from the state of new york do you support his position that states [27:32] should take over control and operation of the medicare program i believe that we [27:38] should save medicaid and medicare on their absolutely critical programs and president trump [27:45] has pledged to do that and it's doing everything his power to do so there are no cuts to medicaid [27:52] they look at the cbo uh congressional budget office report my question excuse me was do you think the [27:59] states the states the states should be vested with control of the medicare program that's the question [28:06] because that's exactly what he said he's your boss is that your position president trump's position is that [28:12] we should preserve medicare no by sending it to the states that's the death you say medicaid or [28:17] medicare medicare that's right yeah president trump's objective is to save medicare and we are taking [28:24] not by saying well it will not save it by sending it to the states that that will destroy the program [28:29] and that's why it was designed the way it was 60 years ago to send it to the states okay let me ask [28:34] you another question in your i don't know of that proposal and the president has not told me about it [28:40] well president is trying to say well the the for seniors seniors in american families they listen [28:46] to what the president says and they understand exactly what he's talking about which is destroying [28:51] the medicare program in your testimony you talked about um having uh you can answer you clearly don't [28:59] want me to answer these questions well you you actually didn't answer the question at all you didn't [29:03] talk about whether the state should be given the authority to run medicare my answer has to begin [29:07] with correcting a lot of the misstatements that you made in your introduction i'm happy to do that [29:16] well that's not a misstatement that's that's a direct quote from your boss i'm telling you the [29:22] president's policy is to save medicare that's what he's always giving it to the states will destroy [29:27] medicare i yield back gentleman yields and i recognize the gentlelady from north carolina mr virginia [29:36] fox thank you very much mr chairman mr secretary it's good to see you we welcome you to the committee [29:44] i i have to join the chairman chairman walberg in saying that the department of health and human [29:52] services budget request is a breath of fresh air congratulations to you on presenting us with a [29:59] budget that could reduce spending by 1.8 billion annually saving taxpayer dollars at the federal [30:06] level while still providing the programs and services that reach families who need them under the [30:14] previous secretary the department engaged in runaway spending so i congratulate you on what you're doing [30:22] secretary this committee has held two hearings and marked up eight bills related to the child care [30:28] and development block grant or ccdbg program federal child care assistance is a critical support for [30:35] low-income working parents seeking to accept access child care and remain in the workforce therefore [30:43] child care is not only a family issue but an economic issue hhs awards many different grants for states [30:50] in the human services space can you explain the urgent need to protect programs like ccdbg [30:57] from waste fraud and abuse especially as they are administered at the state level i mean we're we [31:06] saw during the buying administration my predecessor actually instructed people in my department and [31:14] program integrity so they took we had 80 people in my department when this uh secretary but sarah came in [31:23] who resigned to do program integrity for this these programs these state programs and he fired all but [31:30] six of them so that stopped and and they specifically told people in my department don't worry about [31:36] fraud worry about enrollments they changed a policy to a policy of our payment policy to a pay and chase [31:46] policy so that even claims that we knew to be fraudulent we would pay and then later go back and try to [31:55] claw back that money which incidentally never happened we have now changed those policies we are [32:02] investigating the fraud and i'll give you one example in minnesota or uh applied behavioral analytics we [32:13] which is treatments for autism kids with autism we were expecting to pay seven billion dollars seven [32:21] a million dollars a year for that program we ended up paying almost 300 million the difference is fraud [32:29] and we're seeing that now that that money was being some of it was being sent to al shabbat in somalia [32:38] we have now impounded payments to minnesota because they for one quarter about 350 million [32:46] because they've refused to give us receipts and we've said we're not going to pay until you can show [32:51] us the receipts well i'm proud to say that in north carolina our republican legislature is doing [32:58] everything it can to hold uh democrat elected officials in the state to account for fraud and [33:06] abuse in north carolina on medicaid and other programs and so i'm very proud of them i also want to [33:13] say mr secretary many of us have issues from our states and from our constituents that deal with hhs [33:21] and i hope you'll commit today to helping us get some of those issues solved because many times [33:28] they do save money for the taxpayers so i i i will appreciate your your making that commitment [33:37] i congresswoman i look forward to working with your staff thank you uh my last question mr [33:42] secretary is i have heard today that a new danish study just came out finding no connection between [33:49] tylenol and autism what is your reaction to that study the study is a garbage study it should be [33:56] retracted a study took a million medical records of a billion danish women and it compared women who [34:05] got tylenol during pregnancy to people who did not the problem is the way it determined whether they [34:11] got tylenol during pregnancy was by prescriptions so only two percent of the people in the study got [34:19] tylenol during pregnancy according to the endpoint um in fact we know because tylenol is available by [34:28] over the counter most of you have taken tylenol very few of you have ever gotten a prescription [34:34] 50 of the women in denmark we know from other studies actually took tylenol during pregnancy so [34:41] the study was comparing people women who took tylenol during pregnancy to women who took tylenol during [34:48] pregnancy it was a garbage in garbage out study the industry has the capacity to generate these studies [34:55] all the time and it's fraudulent it should be retracted thank you ladies time has expired i now [35:02] recognize the gentlelady from oregon miss manamichi thank you mr chairman mr secretary the mission of [35:08] the department of health and human services starts with these words to enhance the health and well-being [35:14] of all americans this is a yes or no question does all americans include children of course well i [35:22] frequently talk with families who tell me they can't find child care and if they can find it they can't [35:26] afford it in fact the child care crisis is costing families about 134 billion dollars in lost earnings [35:33] annually and recently as we've heard this morning and i'll repeat the president said there's no money for [35:38] daycare because he needs more money to fight the war which is costing about two billion dollars a day [35:44] your department's budget flat funds child care which won't help at all yet you did spend money on [35:51] a bizarre vanity video with kid rocks so secretary kennedy how does it enhance the health and well-being [35:58] of children to spend hhs's limited resources and taxpayer money on a video of yourself drinking milk in a hot [36:05] tub with kid rock and how much did it cost to prepare and produce this video congresswoman i was [36:12] asked to cut costs across my department because we have a 39 trillion dollar debt i understand mr secretary [36:18] how much did it cost to produce this video i want to correct something that you said i'm an i'm asking [36:26] how much did it cost i would have no idea okay you don't have any idea well i'll tell you that that money [36:31] whatever it costs i consider waste fraud and abuse and that's money that should have invested in our [36:37] nation's children and spent on something like health care and child care that actually improve [36:42] people's lives you know actually you know so many people have come up to me who saw that video and [36:47] say that inspired me mr secretary that's one of the things that we want to do the return on investment [36:53] that we get from early childhood education shows that for every dollar we spend we get back somewhere [36:58] between four and sixteen dollars secretary kennedy about 20 years ago the united states eliminated [37:05] measles so or so we thought but now because of your anti-science rhetoric vaccination rates are down [37:11] in many places below the 95 threshold needed to maintain herd immunity and i know you said that [37:18] happened before you were secretary but mr secretary you've been a long time voice against vaccination [37:23] for more than 20 years measles is highly contagious it can make babies babies who may be too young to [37:30] be vaccinated so sick that they stop eating and drinking and may develop pneumonia or brain swelling [37:36] in my home state of oregon the oregon health authority just recently warned about multiple new locations [37:41] where people may have been exposed a community college a middle school health clinics grocery stores [37:46] this is unacceptable so secretary kennedy does exposing infants and children to measles enhance their [37:52] health and well-being i've never been anti-vaccine i've always said i'm not anti-vaccine right now [37:59] i just approved three weeks ago 500 million dollars for a new for research on a new cancer vaccine [38:06] okay mr secretary you have been a long time voice against vaccination no i haven't no i'm not [38:13] anti-vaccine pro-science what i've said is vaccines should be adequately safety tested so we know both [38:19] both the risks and the benefits i'm funding a major study on developing a universal reclaiming my time [38:28] mr secretary in fact you have said in a congressional hearing that people should not be taking medical [38:34] advice from you the problem is that they are and they believe what you say so secretary kennedy i have [38:40] another question does enhancing health include mental health of course good i'm glad you agree because [38:47] recently masked armed ice agents surrounded some high school students near their school [38:53] a latino student from oregon a u.s citizen recently spoke about he and his friends feel scared at school [39:00] have trouble trouble focusing and feel dehumanized and president trump as you likely know repealed the [39:06] guidance that keeps ice out of sensitive locations like schools and health care centers now children can't [39:12] understand the complexities of the u.s immigration system but they are scared and they can feel anxiety [39:17] so secretary kennedy does it enhance the health and well-being of children to allow immigration [39:23] enforcement in and around schools and at child care centers does that help kids it enhance it was not [39:28] enhancing our health and well-being of the american people to allow 20 million illegal aliens into this [39:35] country and president trump again is left with a mess and he is having to mr secretary in no he is having [39:43] to clean up in no legal or moral or ethical frame does it does it make sense to punish children uh young [39:50] children's brains are highly influenced that was the biggest humanitarian crisis in modern history what [39:56] you guys cause if you cared about children we have now 97 of the unaccompanied minors from coming across [40:05] mr secretary supporting the health events is a concern for children mr secretary support i'm [40:10] reclaiming my time supporting the health and well-being of our nation's children is the best [40:14] investment we can make for the good of the country and the safety and health of american people [40:19] including children and to truly make america healthy again you should resign and allow someone with [40:24] real qualifications to run this agency gentle ladies time has expired i now recognize the gentleman from [40:29] wisconsin mr gruffman yeah i voted for president trump for a lot of reasons but one of the primary [40:36] reasons was i thought he might give you this position so uh i'm glad you're here very grateful yes [40:43] um and on this mental health thing i am given where the mental health professionals have stood [40:52] on this transgender treatment i wonder how much we can trust that occupation to get anything right [40:58] so just not everybody thinks we ought to give these mental health professionals [41:03] uh more but now now we're going to switch to the questions uh what effect of the poor guidelines from [41:09] the old food pyramid uh what effects have poor guidelines on the old food pyramid had on on child health [41:19] and by the way compared yeah go ahead yeah i mean the food pyramid was for 50 years was written by [41:27] industry lobbyists and reflected the mercantile ambitions of those industries and not public health [41:35] it pushed americans towards ultra processed foods and highly refined carbohydrates that destroyed their [41:41] metabolic system oh 70 percent of the calories americans eat typically right now are ultra processor [41:48] or uh highly refined carbohydrates and it caused a metabolic crisis diabetes is an example when i was a kid [41:58] the average pediatrician saw one case of type juvenile or type 2 diabetes over 40 or 50 year career [42:05] and a 38 of american teens are diabetic or pre-diabetic it has made our country the sickest country in the [42:13] world the sickest with chronic disease in the history of the world 77 of american children cannot qualify [42:20] for military service that should get a lot of people's attention well i'll tell you there's a [42:26] lot of uh a lot of money floating around here from the junk food lobbyists in the pharmaceutical industry [42:32] and i'm glad you're taking it on and i'm sure you're gonna get a lot of hostility from the other side of [42:37] the aisle from from your uh desire to do that uh touching on this uh sex change operations and all [42:44] this hoo-ha um the uh professional medical societies and particularly the mental health societies [42:53] have endorsed these sex change operations to me it means we just can't trust the medical societies but uh [43:01] why do you believe they did this why were the mental health professional people pushing [43:06] uh sex change operations on 14 year old kids what do you think well it was a multi-billion dollar industry [43:15] and i think that you know it it the corruption follows the money and but you look at the science [43:23] there's now been two major meta reviews been done the cast study in uh the uk which revel revelations [43:33] the cast study stop europeans from funding this and then we did our own meta review plus individual [43:42] studies at nih that showed the same thing that um the the the results to children the outcomes in children [43:51] are catastrophic in terms of depression suicide all kinds of illnesses it's condemnation to a life [44:01] of misery and uh there is no scientific justification common sense i give a follow-up here what can we do [44:09] to protect children in the future from the medical associations and particularly the mental health [44:15] medical associations from harming our kids how can we prevent them from doing that well we have taken [44:20] steps to do that we have ended all federal funding for those kind of for puberty blockers and uh gender [44:29] mutilation surgeries and we have instructed hospitals and medical centers around the country that if [44:37] they do host those kind of interventions that they will lose all their medicaid and medicare funding [44:44] thank you what scares me is the professionals who push this stuff in the past are still practicing [44:52] and that concerns me because if they can't get this right right if they're if they're pushing sex [44:57] change operations on 14 year old kids i'm afraid they probably can't get anything right would you [45:02] ever under any circumstances send one of your grandchildren to a medical professional who you [45:08] knew even if he stopped doing it and at one time or other push this stuff i would not yeah i i didn't [45:14] think so now a quick question follow we talked about uh um nutrition and uh you know a large segment of [45:22] american society gets their money from food stamps or food share uh would you be in favor of some [45:29] widespread restructuring this whole program or maybe getting rid of the food stamp program and starting [45:34] with a new program that was more uh healthy based i support the food stamp program and under brooke rollins [45:44] leadership at usda we are transforming it we've already i don't with brooke and i encouraging them over [45:52] that half the states have now applied for snap waivers oh they're no longer paying for soda for sugar [45:59] sodas which were 10 percent of the snap budget so we were giving poor kids 63 million poor kids in this [46:06] country diabetes for free at federal expense and treating them 78 percent of them end up on medicaid [46:14] and we're treating them afterwards we're paying at both ends the gentleman's time is expired it's almost all [46:19] red states although two blue states have now uh applied for snap waivers soon we're going to have [46:26] a definition of ultra processed foods we're going to end the gentleman's time has expired i have to [46:30] i have to move on and i recognize the gentleman from california mr tucano thank you mr chairman mr [46:36] secretary you are the nation's top health official and i want to talk to you today about the president's [46:44] mental health on april 5th at 8 o'clock on the morning of easter sunday president trump posted this [46:53] statement on social media tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped in one in iran [47:02] there will be nothing like it open the straight you crazy bastards or you will be living in hell just [47:10] watch praise be to allah president donald j trump an american president used the f word in a sunday [47:21] morning message that was seen by millions of people mr secretary does this raise concerns for you [47:29] about the president's mental health the president is a bargainer and he he knows how to make good deals [47:37] mr secretary does this raise questions about the president's mental health to you here's what i would [47:42] say that for two generations every american president mr mr secretary you're being non-responsive [47:49] i'm reclaiming my time mr secretary i i gathered the answer it does not raise concerns for you [47:54] two days later on april 17 on april 7th president trump put out a statement that said quote a whole [48:02] civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again i don't want that to happen but it probably [48:09] will end quote mr secretary the commander in chief of the united states military is calling for the [48:16] eradication of an entire civilization and five days later the president started posting on truth [48:24] social at 9 p.m at night continuing until 5 a.m the next morning and included an unhinged attack on [48:32] pope leo claiming pope leo was weak on crime and then later that day the next day president trump [48:40] posted this image of himself as jesus christ mr secretary people across the country and around the [48:50] world were deeply offended by this blasphemous image millions of americans are questioning this [48:58] president's mental fitness his emotional stability and whether he can carry out the duties of his office [49:06] do you share their concerns about his mental health i want to call your attention to the last line of [49:12] that mr secretary my question was do you share their concerns about his mental health i want to [49:16] call your attention mr secretary you're not being responsible apparently not reclaiming my time mr [49:21] secretary mr secretary reclaiming my time mr chairman correct a witness it's my time mr secretary [49:28] you're not being responsive and apparently you don't share their concerns we are a nation at war mr [49:33] secretary we need a commander-in-chief that we know has full command of his mental faculties [49:40] and is emotionally stable as he sends uniformed american men and women into harm's way millions [49:47] of americans are now wondering if this president is delusional and thinks he is jesus christ mr secretary [49:58] given everything that i've shown you today will you insist that president trump undergo an assessment [50:03] of his mental fitness and his emotional stability absolutely not thank you mr secretary reclaiming my time [50:11] under so absolutely not i remind you that under the 25th amendment you have a duty to remove a president [50:18] who is physically or mentally unable to discharge his responsibilities under the constitution it's your [50:24] duty you took an oath to the constitution not to president trump mr secretary should president trump fail [50:31] a mental fitness test or an evaluation about his mental stability or emotional stability would you vote [50:40] to invoke the 25th amendment there hasn't been a president who's more mr secretary my question is [50:46] would you vote to invoke the 25th amendment this week mr secretary reclaiming my time it's my question [50:52] my question mr secretary would you invoke the 25th amendment if he were to fail an assessment of his [50:59] mental stability or emotional stability i said president trump is apparently not mr secretary apparently not [51:05] mr uh mr secretary we can all see that this president is mentally unstable emotionally unstable and is [51:13] unfit to lead this country you as the nation's top health official have a particular role here and you [51:21] are choosing your loyalty to donald trump over your loyalty to the constitution and uh being keeping the [51:29] faith with the american people thank you mr chairman i i yield back oh you need the fundraising mr chairman i [51:36] thank you the gentleman's time has expired and been yielded and i couldn't ask the second grade classes [51:43] to turn in again at this point um i would i would i'd hesitate to say something about the 25th amendment [51:52] with the last president there was no concern there from the other side but i won't say that so now i [51:58] recognize the gentleman from georgia mr allen for his five minutes uh thank you chair walberg for holding [52:05] this important hearing and i thank secretary kennedy for testifying sir would you i'll give you i'll [52:10] yell time to you would you like to answer the gentleman's question well i don't really care to but i [52:17] you know what because i'm not here to discuss foreign policy but every democrat in this chamber [52:23] has promised for generations that we weren't going to let iran get a nuclear weapon it kept getting [52:29] down kicked down the road president trump is cleaning up messes that other people made and he's [52:36] doing it in a way he's in he's the best business bargainer that we've ever had in the presidency he [52:42] knows how to make deals he's made the best deals for these countries for this country through tariffs [52:48] all the things he's engaged in he's a genius at it let him do his work let him be president give him [52:55] your support and let's support this country and our troops and try to move forward as a nation he's trying [53:01] to fix the problems that you made thank you mr secretary uh for years getting back to the subject [53:08] we're talking about here today is health care and we got a mess there too created by uh uh obviously the [53:16] affordable care act and uh you know we're spending five trillion on health care and we get the worst [53:22] outcomes i mean you know that's what we should be concerned about here today uh but for years pharmacy [53:28] benefit managers have benefited from opaque pricing tactics while health care costs continue to soar [53:34] by legislation the pbm kickback brought patient act would prohibit pbms from paying consultant and [53:41] brokers who give trusted advice to employers and group health plan fiduciaries from taking compensation [53:47] for steering businesses uh to pbms what steps can hhs take to curb pbm's abusive practices and how might [53:55] congress be able to assist in this effort well it is a i it's one of the it's one of the i would say [54:04] perverse features the health care system that pbms who had nothing are getting 40 percent of profits [54:11] from drugs and they're driving up costs everywhere president trump has us laser focused on fixing the [54:17] problem and i want to thank congress for passing the recent bill that allows us to now go and uh and [54:25] negotiate with the pbms we were already doing that i want to commend signa and david cordoni for [54:31] actually developing a model that is much more rational and that gets rid of the hidden kickbacks [54:39] at de-links the um the cost of the the list price of medicines from the compensations of the pbms pbm's [54:51] compensation was increased by getting you to buy the most expensive they're supposed to be a neutral [54:58] arbiter on your side they made money if you bought the most expensive form of that medication so they [55:05] were steering americans always toward the most expensive one and that's one of the things that [55:09] drove up health care well we're losing pharmacies every day in rural america and this stuff's got to [55:17] stop and that is destroying our health care system um and then let's talk about health care affordability [55:24] you know affordability is a big subject today and uh obviously uh is uh we spend twice what any other [55:33] nation spends on health care with worse outcomes um you know america and i'm talking about american [55:41] workers and their families um in orissa specifically which is where we cover most of the lives what do you [55:49] believe is the underlying underlying causes of high health care costs and would you please discuss how [55:55] much control employers who provide health benefits for their workers have over these costs well the [56:01] biggest driver of health care causes the chronic disease epidemic so when my uncle was president we [56:07] spent zero on chronic disease in this country zero today we're spending 48 percent out of every dollar [56:14] paid if you include social security um health expenditures in the military 48 cents out of every dollar the [56:22] taxpayer give to the federal government goes to health care and 90 of that is chronic disease the only [56:29] way that we can solve this problem is by is with chronic disease another driver is high drug costs we were [56:37] paying the highest we were paying two three five ten fifteen times for the exact same drug made in a plant new [56:47] jersey and in london for example osempic in this country the list price when i came in was thirteen [56:55] hundred dollars in london you could get it in any pharmacy for 88 dollars and that was the rule we are [57:01] now fixed mfn we're going to be paying the lowest cost in the world another driver is the lack of [57:08] transparency there is no market if you go buy an automobile and the guy who's selling it to you said i'm not [57:15] going to tell you the price till after you buy it right you'd think he was crazy i'm i'm sorry i'm [57:20] out of time but i would like that yeah i'd like to meet with you on some solutions that we're talking [57:26] about particularly to privatize erisa and give it a gentleman's time has expired and i'm sure the meeting [57:32] can take place um now i recognize the gentlelady from north carolina miss adams thank you mr chairman [57:38] and thank you secretary kennedy for being here um i have a yes or no question do you agree that there's [57:44] a connection between nutrition and health of course thank you uh so nutrition and the importance of [57:52] healthy foods seem to be a core part of the maha movement is that correct of course okay like you i [58:00] believe that you can't be healthy if you're hungry but as secretary of health and human services do you [58:06] in your capacity um advise the president on nutrition issues as they relate to health [58:12] health you mean his personal health on on health issues any of it oh yeah okay thank you well as i'm [58:22] sure you know many studies show that childhood is a critical time for proper nutrition so a person's [58:29] diet in childhood has a massive impact on their lifelong health and chronic disease risk in february you [58:37] visited an elementary school where you had the opportunity to observe their scratch cooking [58:42] practices and discuss the importance of of serving healthy and fresh foods with school administrators [58:48] and food service staff so can you tell me why then did the president's budget include major cuts to [58:55] programs for child nutrition like the the five million from the farm to school program eliminating uh school [59:03] lunch equipment grants and reducing the benefits that mothers and young children receive for fresh fruits [59:09] and vegetables under the wick program we are absolutely committed to child health and good nutrition we [59:17] just put you know we have um we've preserved head start from any of the cuts and we just put 62 million [59:24] dollars into head start to make sure that the 660 000 children who are in head start can have all right let me [59:33] let me reclaim my time i have some other questions so did the president discuss these proposed cuts with [59:40] you the president no yes okay well you know cuts to the program that that help ensure access to healthy [59:48] and local foods would be a betrayal i believe of the maha agenda which is your agenda excuse me sir i'm [59:57] planning my time here do you agree with these cuts uh being included in the president's budget we are [1:00:03] expanding access can you give me a yes or no do you agree with the with the cuts being proposed [1:00:10] we are expanding all right i'm claiming my time do you do you agree or do you not we are [1:00:15] expanding okay so can i count on you to urge the president the president to reconsider these cuts and [1:00:23] instead invest in school meals he is can we count on can we count on you is that a yes or no can you give me a yes or no [1:00:30] can i count on you to uh providing good nutrition children absolutely all right so well listen it [1:00:37] seems like and i'm glad you said that but it seems like a betrayal of the people who have been promised [1:00:43] by you as secretary to use your position to make food healthier so thank you for clarifying that for [1:00:50] the american people and let me ask you about a survey of school food service directors who found that 79 [1:00:58] 99 of respondents expressed an extreme need an extreme need for an increase in funding in order [1:01:05] to expand scratch cooking and reduce the use of ultra processed foods so that same survey found that [1:01:13] there's a serious need for additional staff additional equipment culinary training and infrastructure [1:01:19] so sir are you aware of the barriers such as food cost inflation and lack of kitchen equipment that [1:01:26] schools face in serving healthy meats to children across the country i am absolutely aware of that [1:01:32] okay so that's good to hear uh but the budget and we are doing budget fails excuse me sir i'm claiming [1:01:39] my time here uh that's good to hear uh because the budget fails to provide any investments in fact it it [1:01:47] does the opposite so that is not true what should excuse me what should i tell i'm reclaiming my time [1:01:53] so what should i tell food service directors in my district who want to to make the transition to [1:01:59] less ultra processed and pre-packaged foods but can barely cover the cost of these expenses what should [1:02:07] i tell them usually you might start by telling them the truth all right well i'm not getting that from [1:02:12] you but i suggest that you take the time uh to meet the food service directors across this country [1:02:18] for a better understanding of the financial pressures on school meals programs many programs [1:02:24] in our country are are just not well funded enough they're not and you keep and you keep supporting the [1:02:31] cuts in these budgets they're not well funded enough to scratch prepare meals and serve less ultra processed [1:02:38] and pre-packaged food all of which are are alleged goals outlined in your maga report make america healthy again [1:02:48] you're not doing it mr secretary mr chairman i yield back [1:02:51] and ladies time has expired i know i yield back i recognize the gentleman from kentucky mr colmer [1:02:58] thank you mr chairman and mr secretary thank you so much for being here today [1:03:03] i want to bring to your attention a program very important to kentuckians the community services [1:03:08] block grant or csbg program community action agencies throughout kentucky leverage a lean budget [1:03:14] of federal csbg funding and private resources to help individuals and families set out on a path to [1:03:20] financial independence and self-sustainability the community action agencies in my congressional [1:03:26] district in kentucky have shared with me concerns about the delivery of csbg funding administered by [1:03:33] hhs being delayed thankfully kentucky community action has a well-managed budget and has funding and [1:03:40] reserves to last them for several more weeks unfortunately they estimate the funding will begin to [1:03:44] run out in early may is there an estimate of when csbg funding for the remainder of quarter two and [1:03:51] quarter three will be released we are trying to get it out the door congressman we are in the internet [1:03:57] we're we're in the interagency process right now okay thank you can i can i take a minute of your [1:04:04] time just to reply to the previous sir what i would say the congresswoman is if you want just a sound [1:04:12] bite you can come in here you can get that and you did it but if you actually want to solve the [1:04:18] problem call call me because we're aligned on the issue of getting good food to children and we think [1:04:24] that we're doing a good job of it we could do a better job but come and tell us how we can do a [1:04:30] better job and that would be something we could all profit from thank you mr secretary i love i love [1:04:36] what you say about the soundbites i this is not my the committee i chair the committee i chair's [1:04:41] oversight committee and the democrats live and breathe for soundbites they have competitions to [1:04:46] get on msnbc and cnn during during committee hearings unfortunately i can't wait to comment yeah well again [1:04:55] talking about the work in in my oversight committee we've led an investigation of the pharmacy benefit [1:05:01] managers we still have a long way to go to prevent pbm manipulation of patient access to effective [1:05:08] and affordable medicines i was glad to see the lower cost more transparency excited the law by [1:05:13] president trump as you know the pbm transparency and disclosure requirements including that law will [1:05:19] give patients and plan sponsors a more accurate picture of how little known companies have distorted [1:05:25] and taken advantage of our nation's healthcare system my question mr secretary do you consider vertical [1:05:30] integration by the pbms and their related companies a safety issue i absolutely do and there is four [1:05:38] companies that basically control the whole industry and that's not good by any economic model it destroys [1:05:46] competition it raises prices it lowers the quality of care absolutely absolutely there are three fda [1:05:55] approved drugs for a common form of leukemia doctors must prescribe the most effective one based on each [1:06:00] patient's individual health profile including heart conditions or past responses to medication [1:06:06] these three leukemia drugs are not interchangeable but some insurance plans are making patients fail [1:06:14] on day one before they can access the preferred course of treatment prescribed by their doctor [1:06:19] so on march 19th i sent a letter to dr oz expressing these concerns however i continue to hear stories about how [1:06:25] insurance companies and their pbms override physician recommendations and block patients [1:06:31] from getting the drugs they desperately need is there a reason patients should have to fail first on [1:06:37] another medication and what is hhs doing to prevent insurers and their pbms from acquiring these types of [1:06:44] unnecessary and often harmful outcomes well we you know i convene the uh insurance companies the biggest ones [1:06:55] that represent 80 percent of american lives um three months into my office and i got them all degree to [1:07:02] end um uh prior authorization and 87 percent or 80 percent of the of the procedures and conditions and [1:07:15] prescriptions by 2027 so i think we may see an improvement but as you know it is a rapacious industry and [1:07:26] they have uh they have uh they have people who don't have medical degrees making decisions that are [1:07:33] life and death for patients after the doctor has said you need this drug somebody some bean counter [1:07:41] and the insurance company is telling them i'm not going to let you have it oh uh it's not a good system [1:07:48] and it's and you know we have to end it and and and i'll conclude by saying this mr chairman and mr [1:07:55] secretary i think we don't agree on a lot in here in a bipartisan basis but i think everyone agrees [1:08:01] that the healthcare system in america is a disaster we blame that on obamacare uh everyone wants to [1:08:08] improve the healthcare system we all believe two two things that that the health insurers are taking [1:08:13] advantage of of patients uh the health insurers are are you know impossible to deal with by the providers [1:08:22] and the pbms have to be reined in so thank you for your great work gentlemen's time has expired [1:08:28] i now recognize the uh gentleman from new jersey mr norcross thank you chairman and like to thank the [1:08:35] witness for being here today and hopefully uh in the next five minutes we can have a conversation that is [1:08:42] unfortunately near and dear to so many people in the united states certainly your family my family and that [1:08:48] is the mental health and the disease of addiction and the budget that is proposed speaks of the [1:08:56] values of that organization so in particular i want to talk about the mental health parity we've seen [1:09:03] devastation the impact that addiction has on families we know that oh so well we've been to those [1:09:11] funerals this is an issue that i hope that we can have an area of some common ground i'm not looking for [1:09:17] a sound bite i'm looking for answers and something that i thought we had worked long and hard that [1:09:25] we aligned so the action by the department under your leadership suggests that the trump [1:09:31] administrations are retreating from the important issue and listening more to the insurance companies [1:09:40] because as you know if we go back 20 years mental health was something that barely was ever talked [1:09:45] about can you just clarify the insurance companies on what what aspect of parity oh for parity okay [1:09:53] spend it physically you have to spend the money and this is where much of the addiction and mental [1:09:58] health comes in uh so looking at the facts under your predecessor the department of labor treasury and [1:10:06] your department had landmark regulations strengthening the oversight of the health plan and the insurers [1:10:12] and critically important these are the toughest federal parity rules ever applied to insurance [1:10:19] companies last year the department announced that you would no longer enforce this regulation since then [1:10:26] the administration has refused to stand up to defend the regulation in a lawsuit by the trade association [1:10:33] to me this is an indication of a retreat by the departments to go after to make sure mental health [1:10:42] addiction treatment is available to anybody in the healthcare who has health insurance and really [1:10:50] surprised to see that this happened trump's bipartisan recommendation coming out 217 opioid commission [1:10:58] led by chris christie and former representative patrick kennedy amongst others to increase the federal [1:11:05] government's authority to enforce parity going to the insurance companies to say you have to [1:11:13] treat mental health addiction services the same way you would treat diabetes or any other health [1:11:22] condition why had the department that you have made this change not going after the insurance [1:11:30] company so people can get the treatment they need first of all i want to thank you for raising the issue [1:11:38] and raising it in such a civil way and i would offline i would love to talk to you more about this we have a major [1:11:45] for me it's a personal focus but within my department um we have major new programs to address [1:11:54] opioid addiction other forms of addiction that i'd like to talk to you about [1:11:59] my cousin authored that bill patrick kennedy he is an advisor now to the department and is helping us on [1:12:05] these policies unfortunately we lost the lawsuit and we are now developing a new rule oh that's where we are [1:12:14] i'm happy to go into details or have my staff meet with your staff and i invite you to call me at any [1:12:21] time we will one of the major issues that we face going forward is that the rules in place that the [1:12:27] insurance companies must do this but if they are found to be in violation there is no penalty it's like [1:12:34] speeding without getting tickets it's a real problem and just for the last few minutes there's a major cut [1:12:41] proposed in samsa that substance abuse and mental health literally almost a 40 cut you know that [1:12:49] i know that is a backbone for so much that goes on i encourage you to restore that money so this disease [1:12:56] of addiction mental health that people can get they help with that i yield back i thank the gentleman [1:13:04] pursuant to the previous order the chair declares a committee in recess subject to call of the chair [1:13:10] we'll plan to reconvene promptly in five minutes thank you the committee now stands in recess committee [1:21:54] has finished the recess and we will continue on with questioning i now recognize the gentleman from [1:22:01] utah mr owens thank you mr chairman uh first of all mr secretary thank you so much um you know we [1:22:09] watched for decades as as americans have gotten sicker and sicker and our country and individuals going [1:22:16] into this financial ditch i'm thankful that we're finally uh right in the ship so keep up the good work [1:22:21] innovation um early this year we saw how the child care and development block grant funding was [1:22:28] defrauded by in minnesota to enrich bad actors taking advantage of a broken system there in fact [1:22:33] the hhs audit report finalized last year made several recommendations for minnesota to improve [1:22:38] their anti-fraud measures to your knowledge did minnesota work to implement those recommendations [1:22:43] before the news broke uh why uh why spread fraud there microphone please congressman let me just say [1:22:57] uh take a moment to say how delighted i am to see you and say a word about the oakland raiders with your [1:23:04] former team um during the 1968 campaign my father's bodyguard for a lot of that campaign were [1:23:12] four members of the fearsome foursome of the championship oakland raiders team rosie greer [1:23:19] merlin olson deacon jones and lamar lundy and and the night that my father was killed rosie greer was [1:23:28] the first person to grab sir hans her hands so my family has always had a very very strong connection [1:23:36] to your team and uh i'm really grateful to see you here today the re you know we went after both [1:23:43] blue states and red states because it were fraud in both florida had some of the biggest uh fraud in [1:23:49] the country florida attorney general and the governor cooperated with us particularly in durable medical [1:23:55] equipment also in hospices and in child care and home care minnesota is the opposite they just absolutely [1:24:06] refused to cooperate and we asked them to provide receipts they had already paid the providers and [1:24:14] we now had to reimburse them for that pay but we said give us the receipts show us that people were [1:24:19] actually tested and for that program which is applied behavioral analytics the there are no [1:24:28] qualifications so the only qualification is you need a high school education and they were mainly members of [1:24:36] the person's family and they would get a kid in the family a diagnosis or maybe several of them declared [1:24:44] autistic by a crooked doctor and then have family members and cousins and everything else um treating [1:24:52] them we have no evidence that there were any kids even treated for a lot of these and they the people [1:25:00] were being paid these children were paying being paid 600 an hour so they ran up these huge bills 300 [1:25:08] million that disappeared and we don't know we expected to spend seven million we spent 300 million [1:25:15] and they refused to give us the receipts and so what we've done is we've impounded 359 million dollars [1:25:25] and said when you show us the receipt for one quarter this is just one quarter when you show us the [1:25:31] receipts we'll give you the money well i'm looking forward to us i think it's great that our country's [1:25:37] finally focus on that on that particular area our health health data system remains fragmented [1:25:42] archaic and insecure across agencies and states this creates real vulnerabilities for foreign bad actors [1:25:48] while crippling timely coordinated decision making especially in crisis the budget requests prioritized [1:25:55] modernization and interoperability what specific structural deficiencies in this funding [1:26:01] design is this funding designed to address and how will more integrated data infrastructure [1:26:06] deliver faster real-time coordination stronger policy execution and better health outcomes for [1:26:11] american people well cyber security is um an absolute priority for us and we've been able to bring [1:26:18] in the best companies the best contractors and the best minds in silicon valley to work on that issue [1:26:26] telehealth uh we are promoting in every part of our department including the rural health transformation fund [1:26:33] which can give uh which can provide telehealth now to rural communities where it's absolutely critical [1:26:40] because a lot of them don't have access to doctors and it lowers the cause for the community out [1:26:46] because a lot of people don't end up having to go to the hospital emergency room oh it's absolutely a [1:26:52] critical part of our program and uh we're going to see massive changes over the next three years well we uh this [1:27:01] committee has done a remarkable job of bringing innovation to modernization and interoperability [1:27:05] uh from workforce uh to education so i look forward to working with your team we've done some great [1:27:10] things in that area learning employment records and i think it's going to be a win for for all [1:27:15] their agencies across the board so thank you so much now you're back thank you gentlemen [1:27:20] i now recognize the gentlelady from georgia ms mcbath thank you mr chairman and thank you secretary [1:27:26] kennedy for being before us today you have characterized many things as epidemics and [1:27:31] threats to public health including autism and the presence of fluorite in our drinking water [1:27:38] shootings are the number one cause of death for children in this country they have been since 2020. [1:27:44] but when you were asked if gun violence was a public health crisis during your senate confirmation [1:27:49] hearing last year you answered with a succinct no which i would like to submit digitally for the [1:27:57] record my son jordan davis was murdered in a shooting at just 17 years of age simple answer [1:28:06] yes or no do you believe that gun violence is an epidemic or a public health crisis i would say it's [1:28:12] an epidemic i think it's a law enforcement issue and not public health i i i find it kind of absurd [1:28:22] to hear you say that i i really do um you think i should be regulating gangs and i think secretary it's [1:28:30] my time i think it's kind of absurd to hear you say that so can you tell me how many children were [1:28:35] killed by fluoride toxic toxicity in my home state of georgia in 2024. fluoride toxicity i probably none [1:28:44] you're right the answer is absolutely zero so can you tell me how many children right across the [1:28:50] country in 2024. fluoride doesn't kill you that's an absurd question again that answer is zero so how [1:28:56] about nobody would answer that question i'm reclaiming my time how about by firearms can you [1:29:02] tell me how many kids were killed in shootings across the country in 2024 you can see right behind [1:29:09] me i can't read it 3 865 over 10 a day that's more than drownings more than car accidents more than [1:29:21] cancer and certainly more than fluoride it is far more than many of the things that you choose to focus [1:29:28] on or your time i'm reclaiming my time secretary it's obvious that gun violence is an epidemic and [1:29:37] it is both a public health crisis i know it and so do the thousands of parents who are burning their [1:29:43] kids in this country every single year but what i don't know is how you can expect the american people [1:29:50] to take your opinion seriously when you try to tell them that they don't need to worry about the leading [1:29:55] cause of death for their kids i never told them reclaiming my time while you tour the country to [1:30:03] talk about the supposed dangers of fluoride you should focus your efforts on things that are really [1:30:10] killing our children in this country every single day we have limited time here but i also want to ask [1:30:16] you about your comments about people with disabilities especially about people with autism now in your first [1:30:24] press conference as secretary in april of last year you said and i'm quoting autism destroys families [1:30:31] that these are kids who will never pay taxes never hold a job never play baseball never write a poem [1:30:36] or go out on a date many of them will never use a toilet unassisted which i would also like to submit [1:30:43] for the record the truth is is that i respond to that without objection thank you thank you the truth [1:30:51] is is that the majority of people on the autism spectrum can do all the things that of course [1:30:57] they can i never said they couldn't some people with disabilities do need direct care to assist them [1:31:03] with activities like going to the bathroom but that does not mean that they are somehow less than [1:31:08] or unable to lead fulfilling and productive lives as you nobody said they were i'm reclaiming my time [1:31:14] i'm asking you here today secretary to apologize for spreading lies about people with autism and their [1:31:20] families will you apologize for those remarks that you've made of course not then if you let me [1:31:27] explain i'm happy to i was talking about people with profound autism odd people who are you know who [1:31:35] have lower impact autism but i'm talking about people who are non-verbal non-toilet trained headbanging [1:31:43] stimming toe walking okay then since hundreds and hundreds of people have written me letters [1:31:49] explaining what you really meant comments you're explaining what you really mean can you apologize [1:31:54] to the thousands of families that do not believe what you're just telling us now no because if you [1:32:00] look at my comments it was very very sad i find that very very sad it should be very easy for you to [1:32:06] apologize if that's not in fact what those are crocodile tears congresswoman i'm very and for all the [1:32:13] families that have children with autism i'm very sad to hear you say that because those families are [1:32:19] dealing with the kinds of conditions that many people just don't even understand the president is [1:32:26] trying to close the department of education if you want to keep talking i'm reclaiming my time the [1:32:32] president is trying to close the department of education if that happens services provided under the [1:32:38] individuals with disabilities education act including special ed may move under your jurisdiction [1:32:44] this is unacceptable unacceptable for so many reasons but one of the most important reasons is this no [1:32:51] parent wants their son or daughter's education to be in the hands of a man who openly admits that he [1:32:58] does not believe in their children and i yield generally his time is expired i now recognize the gentlelady [1:33:05] from illinois miss miller thank you mr chairman mr secretary would you like to respond further [1:33:11] i was very clear in my remarks that i was talking about people about children who have profound autism [1:33:18] those children are as i described them in fact yesterday a man a democrat came up to me and thanked [1:33:26] me for what i said i've had hundreds of people thank because these are hidden people they are silent [1:33:32] the parents are so consumed by caring for them and they can't even get out and advocate they need [1:33:39] a voice and i've given them that voice and thousands of people have thanked me for it thank you mr secretary [1:33:46] and i'm so grateful for the work that you and president trump are doing to make america healthy again [1:33:52] and i just want to thank you for giving credibility to my healthy diet i like to eat sauerkraut for breakfast [1:33:58] also i don't like it but i gag it down well we can learn to like it your department mr secretary has [1:34:05] implemented much needed reforms to programs like head start and the child care development block grant [1:34:11] to ensure federal dollars are going to those who need it most not to illegal aliens who are seeking to [1:34:17] further defraud our government hhs has all also upheld parental rights and biological sanity by rescinding [1:34:27] a biden regulation that required foster parents to socially transition a confused child additionally the [1:34:35] department has enforced president trump's executive order that protects children from chemical and [1:34:42] surgical mutilation ensuring that tax dollars are not used to fund puberty blockers or sex rejecting [1:34:49] procedures mr secretary thank you for following through on your pledge to make america healthy again [1:34:56] by improving school lunches and ensuring that harmful dyes and chemicals are removed from our foods [1:35:03] i'm also pleased to see hhs accommodating religious and health exemptions and holding manufacturers [1:35:10] accountable for vaccine injuries and deaths furthermore mr secretary you and president trump have done a lot [1:35:17] of work to eliminate dei at the department of health and human services and instead hire employees based [1:35:26] solely on merit to make america great again we need to make meritocracy great again i am hopeful that we [1:35:34] can continue to collaborate on these efforts and codify these important changes lastly i want to address [1:35:41] the abortion pill we both consider it harmful to public health it's a drug that we both agree needs to be [1:35:49] regulated not only does the abortion pill end the life of an innocent unborn child but it also [1:35:56] endangers the life of the mother since the abortion drug approval presidents obama and biden continued [1:36:05] to whittle away safety requirements putting women at increased risk in fact at least 10 percent of women who [1:36:13] take the pill experience sepsis infection hemorrhaging and other serious life-threatening events pro-abortion [1:36:23] states are circumventing the laws of pro-life states by mailing abortion drugs across state lines [1:36:29] considering this please for the sake of women i hope that we can continue building on your work [1:36:36] at hhs by releasing the study on the abortion pill and reinstating the in-person dispensing requirements [1:36:44] that were rescinded by the biden administration making it very dangerous for our women for young women [1:36:52] thank you again for your time mr secretary and i'd like to yield the remainder of my time to you to make [1:36:57] any comments that you have well thank you very much uh carl's woman i can't comment on method [1:37:03] method bristone because it's under litigation now we've been advised by the office of general counsel [1:37:09] uh that they don't want me talking about it at all but thank you for your concerns i [1:37:15] share president trump's concern that we can't be a moral nation with 2.1 million abortions every year [1:37:22] and that uh we um and that you know the government has has a obligation to protect women and babies [1:37:31] yes and when the government promotes it and pays for it and lies to women we know for a fact that at least [1:37:40] 80 percent of women when they have an ultrasound when they are given the information on the development [1:37:45] of the child when they are given the support and information on how to access um help that they [1:37:53] will choose life and not abortion and i don't know why this is the only medical procedure that i know of [1:37:59] that we withhold information from the patient so that we can tip the scales to a certain choice the left [1:38:07] is not pro-choice they are pro-abortion thank you gentlelady's time has expired i now recognize the [1:38:14] gentlelady from michigan ms stevens well thank you mr chair for holding this hearing and mr secretary [1:38:20] uh it is in fact true i come from the great state of michigan and as you enter uh your second year as [1:38:28] our nation's health and human services secretary i just had a few things i wanted to tick through with you [1:38:33] here today um so in early 2025 after your confirmation measles cases spiked in the united [1:38:41] states to the highest level since 1991. last year we had over 2 200 cases in america three people died [1:38:50] two were children do i have that correct because according to the cdc and the american academy of [1:38:56] pediatrics i do during this same time that epidemic started before i came during the same time you [1:39:02] questioned the effectiveness of the measles vaccine and then in september your hand-picked vaccine panel [1:39:08] voted against recommending the combined measles vaccine for children under four this is true it was [1:39:15] dangerous we know now that over 90 of measles cases in 2025 were among people who were unvaccinated or [1:39:24] whose vaccination status was unknown that's correct according to this we should have given a dangerous [1:39:30] vaccine that all the science in just the first three and a half months of 2026 the year we're in [1:39:36] right now we've already seen an additional 1700 measles cases i assume you're aware of this according [1:39:42] to the cdc there's a global epidemic you have also pushed vitamin a as a treatment for measles that is [1:39:48] correct yeah according to the america's poison centers vitamin a overexposure among children [1:39:56] increased by nearly 40 percent and in this time frame children in the hospitals with both measles [1:40:03] and unsafe levels of a vitamin a has occurred correct i'm not recommending unsafe levels i'm [1:40:09] recommending what every major international health organization recommend american poison centers agrees [1:40:15] you characterized your response to one outbreak in texas as a model for the rest of the world even as [1:40:23] the number of measles cases climbed as secretary of health and human services have you ever taken steps [1:40:30] to undermine medical guidelines rooted in science because we can look at your records sir oh i serve on [1:40:37] the science committee as the at the beginning of this year the cdc tried to slash the childhood vaccine [1:40:43] schedule from 17 recommended vaccines to 11 before it was blocked by a judge hepatitis a b rsv multiple [1:40:52] vaccines were demoted do you just do you dispute this charge sir do you think that we should recommend [1:40:58] interventions that have not been saved countless lives a 2024 study estimates that childhood vaccines have [1:41:06] saved 1.1 million children's lives and prevented more than 500 million illnesses in the last three decades [1:41:15] doctors researchers and medical experts have spent years working to not only understand illnesses but [1:41:23] also prevent them your actions restricting these vaccines have a grave impact on our country and while you [1:41:32] have waged war against established medical science you've also attacked life-saving research on cancer and [1:41:39] alzheimer's you have implemented measures that have raised costs kicked families off their insurance and [1:41:46] made it harder to get coverage you're devastated rural hospitals look to top it off mr secretary i got a copy of [1:41:54] the hr 944 do you know what it is your impeachment article sir you have abused your office you have gutted [1:42:03] america's public health and you have sacrificed our leadership in medical research and innovation americans today [1:42:11] are less safe under your watch children are dying of diseases that we thought we had eradicated you can smirk [1:42:22] but i answer to the people of michigan and they have told me you should be ashamed you should resign [1:42:29] and if you refuse congress should remove you from office i yield back the gentlelady's time has expired [1:42:36] i now recognize the gentleman from missouri the good doctor under uh thank you mr secretary um thank [1:42:47] you for being here i'm glad my colleague got her a little x clip there too yeah hopefully it'll go viral [1:42:52] for like she intended secretary thank you so much for your for your work on on just so many areas but [1:43:00] one of the things i wanted to highlight today was your work on prior authorization that was used too [1:43:05] often to deny patients of the care they need but i think what we're seeing i'm i'm a practicing [1:43:11] physician practice very little now that i'm in congress but now more and more we're seeing threats to [1:43:18] patient access because insurance are allowing doctors to give patients the care they need but [1:43:24] then denying payment for those for those cares and this isn't the usual you know fight over us over [1:43:29] physicians getting reimbursed an example from my own specialty i've been contacted by dozens of [1:43:35] allergist immunologists around the country that united healthcare is claiming to follow medicare [1:43:42] dishonestly claiming to follow medicare on allergy immunotherapy and reimbursement allergy shots and [1:43:48] completely denying care for that very life-changing reimbursement for that very life-changing [1:43:56] treatment given the market power of united healthcare this will put this particular therapy [1:44:03] out of business within i would say six months to a year if uhc's policy continues [1:44:09] um you know for 45 million united healthcare insured patients so i think we need to we need to watch [1:44:15] that not only the barriers to care up front but if insurers can arbitrarily use their market power [1:44:22] to to uh to deny reimbursement that care will go away likewise but yeah yeah i mean i have uh i have [1:44:32] children with anaphylactic allergies yes and um some of them have benefited from these uh you know [1:44:40] uh these allergen yes i have a son who literally lost his peanut allergy which every doctor told [1:44:47] yeah that's oral immunotherapy never happened yes that's oral immunotherapy which is relatively new [1:44:52] and i don't think any insurer actually reimburses for that but um but but uh but then then uh [1:44:59] aeroallergen immunotherapy pollen mold dust and so on uh that used to treat in asthma [1:45:05] uh sinus disease allergic diseases is is is mostly what they're what united right now is [1:45:12] the other is the first i've heard of it and i have two guys who are sitting behind me chris clump and [1:45:17] ken callahan who'll be interested in helping you with this let's get them together with your staff [1:45:23] i appreciate that mr secretary and i want to commend you and my colleague uh representative miller [1:45:29] highlighted this your work to protect kids from mutilating transgender procedures of course i think [1:45:35] most impactful immediately impactful was the denial of medicare and medicaid reimbursement to hospitals [1:45:42] who insist on mutilating kids despite the science including the recent finish a finland study um but [1:45:49] one thing that one thing that really just monumental development i think is the executive order that [1:45:57] president trump transmitted uh last january it had a number of components including directing the [1:46:04] hhs study that you that that that that came out later last year but also directed the department of [1:46:11] justice to work on a bill to create strict liability for those health care providers who would exploit our [1:46:20] kids with mutilating transgender procedures um i am honored to be carrying that bill in the house [1:46:26] it's the chloe cole act senator blackburn is carrying in the senate i believe that strict liability the [1:46:33] ability of parents and children young adults to hold those who exploited them with these mutilating [1:46:39] procedures accountable could be very impactful just as we saw the ama and the plastic surgeons change their [1:46:46] position on mutilating procedures uh after the big uh verdict in new york um do you think it's time that [1:46:54] we'd be able to hold hold those who harm our children in this way strictly accountable it makes a lot of [1:47:01] sense to me there's no i mean the science is so clear that this is a harmful procedure with uh with [1:47:09] very few little evidence of any benefits um we'll work with you on that no i i appreciate that and you [1:47:17] know the one talking point that these transgender doctors i have a hard time even calling them doctors but [1:47:24] uh these quacks uh say is this is going to improve kids mental health prevent suicide well there's no [1:47:31] evidence there's no evidence of that and the finland study showed that that girls who are gender confused [1:47:36] to undergo these procedures they're serious mental health issues double and boys they go up six-fold so [1:47:43] i think there's never been a good evidence and now there's abundant evidence that we're doing more [1:47:48] mental health harm than good i thank the gentleman thank you mr chairman doctor this time has expired i now [1:47:54] recognize the gentleman from texas mr kasar good morning secretary kennedy i have a few questions [1:48:02] about who you're meeting with and talking to as you make this nation's health care policy and health [1:48:09] policy according to reports you and president donald trump met with the ceos of pfizer eli lily pharma [1:48:19] and others at mar-a-lago is that correct yes and you've also met with the ceos of pepsi and tyson [1:48:26] and kellogg's is that correct mr secretary with people on both sides of the issue yes of course the [1:48:34] ceo we're going to meet with industry yeah and the ceo of starbucks as well is that correct yeah thank you [1:48:40] do you know how many billionaires you've met with in your time in office i have no idea well at least at a [1:48:48] cabinet meeting there's of course donald trump mr lutnik miss mcmahon mr musk so at least four or five [1:48:56] so we've established here you've met with a good number of ceos some billionaires i hear you've even [1:49:02] met with kid rock so here's my question the trump policy that passed through the congress was to give [1:49:10] some of these ultra wealthy people a tax cut and part of policy the the big ugly bill gives the ultra [1:49:18] wealthy a massive tax cut it's well documented but part of what pays for it is kicking 15 million [1:49:26] americans off of their affordable health care and your secretary of health so here's my question [1:49:33] you've met with the ceos you've met with some billionaires how many people have you met with how [1:49:38] many americans have you met with that have lost or about to lose their health insurance well i have uh [1:49:46] i've met with the advocacy community on virtually everything that we regulate i've met with more [1:49:53] tribes and tribal leaders than any hhs secretary in history and i'm grateful for your meeting with [1:49:59] tribes and advocacy organizations but have you met with everyday americans who have lost their health [1:50:06] insurance just this last year with every i meet with everyday americans every day and have you had [1:50:13] conversations with those americans who will lose their health insurance this coming year or next [1:50:19] year because of the cuts to medicaid have you met with people who have lost their health insurance [1:50:23] first of all there are no cuts in medicaid there are no cuts in medicaid look at the cbo report from [1:50:28] this week we are increasing medicaid spending by 47 so we've got next 10 years so so over a trillion [1:50:35] dollars comes out over the next 10 years report after report says 15 million by 40 15 million [1:50:41] people could lose their health insurance how is that a cut okay let's talk about that there's only [1:50:45] a cut in washington have you met with again have you met with any of the 1.4 million people who have [1:50:53] lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of obamacare have you sat down and [1:50:59] talked to those folks about the fact they won't have their health insurance they're almost all illegal [1:51:03] immigrants oh well you know what it sounds like you haven't met with folks like porsche in my [1:51:10] district found 1.5 million illegal immigrants no no no collecting medicaid mr secretary there are [1:51:16] people like porsche and buta texas whose health insurance costs went from a hundred dollars a month [1:51:21] to 500 a month people like my constituent shauna in san marcus texas her premium went from 250 to 750 [1:51:27] a month now 500 a month may not be a lot to you or to some of the billionaires that y'all are [1:51:33] talking to but for these moms with kids they've lost their health insurance this last year so have [1:51:38] you had a conversation with how many people have you sat down with that have said mr secretary i lost [1:51:44] my health insurance this last year what are we going to do about 87 percent of the people who are [1:51:49] on obamacare are paying less than 90 96 a month 54 of the people who are on obamacare today [1:51:58] are paying less than 50 a month well and good for you us to talk about obamacare obamacare policy [1:52:04] the question is it sounds like the answer has had three chances to make we can talk all we want [1:52:11] about the past tax credits we can talk about why didn't you do it we can talk about the past why [1:52:14] didn't you do it when you had the power to do it mr secretary just like you i'm i'm i'm new here [1:52:19] i'm responsible for what's happening right here and now your colleagues my question mr secretary [1:52:25] is have you met with anybody that's lost their health insurance and it sounds like the answer [1:52:30] is zero so my question was you've had time to meet with the billionaires i know it's a lot of fun to [1:52:35] meet with kid rock true i have met with people who who have lost their health insurance because of [1:52:40] the policy from this last year yeah people come up to me and say that they've lost their health [1:52:45] insurance and i talk to them and and what have you said to them how can you explain to them how as [1:52:51] you're trying to make america healthy that they now can't see a doctor anymore point them to other [1:52:56] options president trump is trying somebody so when somebody's health insurance cost goes up 500 a [1:53:03] month because of donald trump's policy i don't see how you could honestly tell them how you're going to [1:53:08] make this better for them it is the democratic policy to benefit billionaires the healthy insurance [1:53:15] companies stocks raised by a thousand percent after obamacare was passed the money was not going [1:53:22] to americans it was going to them and it was you who did it the gentleman's time has expired we need [1:53:28] to move on chairman i'm here it just sounds like he's met with nobody and been able to explain to them [1:53:34] why it's okay that this policy kicks them off their health care now recognize the gentleman from [1:53:39] north carolina mr harris thank you mr chairman and uh secretary kennedy thank you so much for being here [1:53:45] today i know that uh my republican colleagues and i have admired your work on making america healthy [1:53:52] again and really cutting down on the waste fraud and abuse in many of our government programs since [1:53:59] president trump was sworn into office on january 20th his entire administration as you know has worked [1:54:04] diligently toward the goal of improving our federal government's efficiency i happen to serve on the [1:54:10] subcommittee for higher education and workforce development and a strategy that the administration [1:54:16] has used to improve efficiency and interagency agreements are of great interest to me between [1:54:23] the department of education and the department of health and human services i believe three iaas [1:54:29] titled the education department health and human services foreign medical accreditation agreement [1:54:34] the child care access means parents and school agreement and the family engagement and school support [1:54:43] agreement have been implemented between the department of education and health and human services my first [1:54:49] question to you is how has that transition gone of moving education programs like c campus and ncf mea [1:54:58] from the department of education to health and human services in your opinion well so far we i have not heard of any bumps [1:55:07] um i you know i i can't tell you all the details of the move and i have not i will hear it if there's a problem [1:55:14] right i understand that so when discussions regarding the ias began were there some specific benefits or [1:55:23] things that you saw that health and human services could actually bring to these um education department [1:55:31] programs i know you mentioned earlier some of them just belonged or fit better in health and human [1:55:36] services what are some benefits you think maybe we've been able to well in terms of you know foreign policy [1:55:42] issues cdc we're in 64 countries around the world we have one of cdc's major portfolio items is foreign policy [1:55:54] and um and so international relations is what we do and that fits perfectly with what we're doing [1:56:04] the other functions are mainly health care functions that are related to public health and disabilities and [1:56:12] special education and those are those fit perfectly aligned perfectly with what we're already doing [1:56:18] and what we think we probably can do better than the department of education right well with those three [1:56:26] inter action agencies our interagency actions in place are there plans for hhs to enter other ias either [1:56:34] with the department of education or other agencies that maybe as this efficiency effort is being made [1:56:42] that you can see coming in the future that will help improve government efficiency yes there are and [1:56:47] we are talking to other agencies about that now okay it's not something that i would be prepared to go [1:56:52] into details i understand completely understand um i also want to switch in gears real quickly i've been [1:56:58] encouraged to see the administration working to restore common sense policies across all agencies and [1:57:04] it's already been touched on by several of my colleagues here today of those one of those [1:57:09] policies is prohibiting the transgender medical interventions on children it was also referenced [1:57:15] a little earlier today the executive order and the the executive order from january 28 states it's [1:57:21] the policy of the united states that it will not fund sponsor promote assist or support the so-called [1:57:29] transition of a child from one sex to another and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or [1:57:36] limit these destructive and law life-altering procedures in quote now some reports that i've [1:57:43] seen have shown that many hospitals and health systems have actually temporarily or indefinitely rolled [1:57:49] back the transgender surgery and treatment for minors and some young adults because of these executive [1:57:55] orders just quickly asking from your perspective does that match these reports i've seen to the general [1:58:02] trend that you're seeing as a secretary of health we're seeing that trend across the board and [1:58:07] particularly with the suspension of medicaid and medicare funding for the hospitals that host these [1:58:13] procedures i think that's going to have a universal impact well i want to join my other colleagues that [1:58:20] have mentioned it in thanking you for your role the secretary of health and human services to take action to [1:58:27] end chemical and surgical mutilation of children and i'm very grateful for your service and with that mr [1:58:32] chairman i'll yield that i thank the gentleman this time hasn't expired and i recognize the gentle [1:58:39] lady from pennsylvania miss lee thank you mr chairman so this is black maternal health week so i'll just [1:58:47] start there secretary kennedy i'm sure you're aware that black women are at least three times more likely to [1:58:52] die from pregnancy related causes than white women the vast majority of those deaths are preventable [1:58:58] black women in my district are more likely to die during pregnancy than their peers in 97 [1:59:03] percent of u.s cities your written testimony mentions maternal and child health four times but from [1:59:09] what i've seen the nih cancel grants researching black maternal health your administration's fiscal [1:59:16] year 27 budget proposes eliminating healthy start which is one of the federal government's primary [1:59:22] community-based maternal health programs and you've made it a priority of hhs to end diversity equity and [1:59:28] inclusion so yes or no my question for you is if a medical school or a public health school educates [1:59:34] students about addressing the black maternal mortality crisis would you consider that an illegal dei dei [1:59:41] no no you would not no great i do hope for the medical schools um the universities and the accreditors [1:59:50] your administration has been threatening that they're watching this and take this directive to continue [1:59:55] teaching about uh and addressing the black maternal mortality crisis and i expect your agency to [2:00:01] restore and expand funding and support for that work um also yes or no do you think consuming more [2:00:07] protein and avoiding tylenol will prevent black women from dying three times more likely during the [2:00:11] pregnancy i i doubt it um why aren't you putting forth serious policies that actually address the health [2:00:25] crises uh crises in this country instead of just these unserious conspiracy theories and this wellness [2:00:32] influencer mess that we do you want me to answer that question or are you just talking no it's a [2:00:36] question uh you're doing more on maternal health than any other administration no i said black maternal [2:00:42] health on maternal health black maternal health includes blacks and whites but the thing is is that [2:00:49] they're actually not the same outcomes which means that we need specific and intentional interventions [2:00:53] for black maternal health and black and can i finish are you going to answer that yeah we have a right [2:01:01] now we've implemented a um a perinatal pilot project that we're in 220 hospitals around the country [2:01:12] and we have reduced maternal health mortalities by 42 percent of those hospitals by providing them [2:01:17] protocols can you please share what the reduction has been for black maternal health across the board it's 42 [2:01:22] 42 percent but black maternal health still has worse outcomes than other i wouldn't know it helps [2:01:29] everybody but it isn't object to that okay thank you it is not i do want to just for the record state [2:01:35] that it does not help everyone your agency told programs to remove a list of nearly 200 words and [2:01:41] phrases from their funding applications including the word black um do you have an idea of how we could [2:01:47] solve the black maternal mortality crisis if we can't say black president trump is trying to end division in [2:01:52] this country not so sorry not eviction during the last four years that's what dei did it divided people [2:01:59] it polarized people no no no no we're not talking about eviction we're talking about i'm calling about [2:02:04] dei we're talking about health care yeah disparities so what we're asking is is if you attack de and i and [2:02:10] then we have a a crisis that impacts one population over another but you cannot direct specific spending or [2:02:19] research or interventions to that population how do you solve the problem do you think the federal [2:02:25] government should be paying for dei i think the federal government has a vested interest in ensuring [2:02:31] that its citizens survive childbirth oh we we are meeting that obligation you're not oh that i can explain [2:02:39] to you how we are you have not done so so far but also i would say that you know we can improve health [2:02:45] care for everybody at the same time as helping the people who are most likely to die that's what de and [2:02:51] i well first of all de and i make sure that we have black doctors um or women doctors or we're talking [2:02:58] about the fact that we have a mortality rate that is not matched by any other country as as what we [2:03:04] would call developed as ours really quickly in yesterday's ways and means committee hearing you [2:03:08] denied saying that every black kid is now just a standard put on adderall ssri's benzos which are known to [2:03:14] induce violence and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere else and get reparented why [2:03:17] did you deny saying this why did i deny payment no why did you decide the deny that you said that every [2:03:24] black kid is now just standard put on adderall ssri's benzos which are known as to induce balance and that [2:03:30] you would re-home them well it's largely true that black kids because it's easier to handle people [2:03:38] and they they a lot of the you're going to re-home them oh i never said that we should re-home them [2:03:44] real legal drugs oh gentlelady's time has expired okay i just wanted to know that was him [2:03:52] for the record thank you thank you gentleman back i i recognize the gentleman from california [2:03:57] mr kiley uh thank you mr chair morning mr uh secretary i just wanted to first start by echoing [2:04:03] part of what my colleague from texas said about the expiration of the aca subsidies this was this is [2:04:07] a serious issue for a lot of people uh in this country right now who have seen escalating an escalating [2:04:13] increase in their uh premium payments um i will say i think it represented a failure on both sides [2:04:18] to come together and find a solution i had a bipartisan bill there were a couple of others on [2:04:22] this issue uh but partisan politics got in the way uh and now people are having to pay a lot more and [2:04:28] things have become even more unaffordable so i do hope that we can uh still even at this late hour uh find [2:04:35] a way to solve this problem and make people whole uh but what i actually want to talk to you about [2:04:39] today is the new uh food pyramid uh which uh you know i think is one of the most important [2:04:44] documents our government has issued uh in a long time and there's a website to go along with it [2:04:49] realfood.gov that is i think the most user-friendly government website i've ever seen i'd highly recommend [2:04:55] people check it out uh realfood.gov and regardless of what anyone thinks about you mr secretary about the [2:05:01] president or about me or anyone on this committee i would hope that this is something that we can all come [2:05:05] together around uh because some of the statistics you've already cited and they're in your supporting [2:05:11] documents here are truly jarring you know 70 plus percent of uh adults in the u.s being overweight way [2:05:17] more than any other developed country third of adolescents have pre-diabetes uh as a result we have [2:05:22] lower life expectancy maybe two and a half years of reduced life expectancy because of these issues [2:05:27] uh chronic disease consumes as you mentioned 90 of our overall spending so you've addressed some of [2:05:32] this already but can you just explain briefly you know how it is that our food supply in the u.s is [2:05:39] linked to all of these problems yeah i mean there are there there are a um there's it's a confluence [2:05:47] of different uh forces but i think probably the most um potent driver was the grass standards grass is [2:05:55] generally is a loophole known as generally recognized as safe and it was put into the food drug and [2:06:04] cosmetic act in 1948 to allow companies to include ingredients that were traditional like vinegar [2:06:13] and salts and wheat and these kind of things but it was hijacked by the food industry so that they're [2:06:21] now using it to put any chemical that they make in a lab without even informing us what it is and we now [2:06:28] have 10 000 ingredients in our food and we have no idea about the safety of almost any of them the [2:06:36] europeans don't have this and they have only 400 ingredients in their food oh that explains that [2:06:44] that explains why americans partially why americans are so sick and then the other thing was the food [2:06:50] pyramid itself was they was the the creation of corruption the people who were writing it were captured by [2:07:01] the obvious certain companies that were trying to promote margarines and um and ultra processed [2:07:11] foods and to get rid of protein and that's what they did they gave a they did false studies that were [2:07:18] fraudulent that said that protein caused heart attacks there's zero evidence of that they took protein off [2:07:25] and as a result today 70 of the calories that americans eat are ultra processed food and it's just [2:07:32] poison so that's why you've inverted this and the sort of overarching principle as it suggests is to [2:07:38] eat real foods and then you have you know various guidelines that people can check out eat the amount [2:07:43] that's right for you prioritize proteins consume dairy eat vegetables and fruits throughout the day [2:07:48] incorporate healthy fats focus on full grains limit highly processed foods specially added sugar notice the [2:07:53] yogurt here is unsweetened uh so uh the question is then how do we actually you know cause this to [2:08:01] compel change across the country uh and that's a very you know uh challenging task but we do have a pretty [2:08:07] good maybe uh precedent for this when it comes to uh cigarette use you know we've seen a reduction of [2:08:13] maybe four out of every 10 adults smoking in the 60s to one out of every 10 uh adults now so is there are [2:08:20] there any lessons to be learned here and what do you think the keys are to actually compelling [2:08:25] adoption of these habits and practices changes in institutions in a way that will actually reverse [2:08:30] these long time i mean we don't want to use compulsion americans should always have choice if you want [2:08:34] to eat a crispy cream donut you should be able to do it but we have the power of the subsidy program [2:08:42] 405 million dollars a day from usda to wix ed start school lunches um uh indian tribal services and we are [2:08:53] using those to drive changes in the dietary culture so for example i'll just give you one example [2:08:59] with brooke rollins is required that every retailer that gives out that accepts food stamps has to double the [2:09:08] amount of real food in their facility and that's just one example but there are many many many we're [2:09:14] changing food in the military we're changing hospital food we're doing this across the board [2:09:20] to drive these changes and create a revolution in food culture in this country that's fantastic and [2:09:26] yeah the more we can do that to encourage uh this uh pyramid to become uh more widely known and in [2:09:33] practice i think it'll benefit our country enormously so gentlemen's time has expired even though i'm [2:09:38] grateful to hear about crispy cream donuts now i recognize the gentleman from new york mr manion [2:09:44] thank you mr chair uh thank you mr secretary for your testimony today earlier in this hearing [2:09:51] uh representative tucano had uh referenced truth social posts from the president and i believe i heard [2:09:58] your response to be that he was the most sane president do you care to comment any further is that [2:10:04] your if you look at that true social post i was pointing out the last line of it [2:10:10] as god bless the iranian people so it was clear that he was sending a nuanced message he was sending a [2:10:17] message of root force and violence to the mullahs to incentivize them to change but also sending [2:10:25] a message of love and compassion to the iranian people so you can look at it and say oh it's insane [2:10:31] that he'd make this kind of threat but he's a deal maker he's a bargainer thank you mr secretary i [2:10:37] appreciate that more sane than your uncle he's he's very very sane so i grew up in a place called [2:10:47] tipperary hill i'd say he's more sane than uncle joe and uncle joe biden your uncle your father were [2:10:54] heroes to the irish catholic community your uncle a purple heart recipient a world war ii veteran and [2:11:03] naval commander a hero a member of the house of representatives and the united states senate and a [2:11:09] president whose term ended in assassination and is widely regarded as someone who navigated our [2:11:17] country through possibly the most challenging time of the cuban missile crisis there were two pictures [2:11:25] that hung in the homes of irish catholics in my neighborhood separate pictures one of your uncle [2:11:32] president john fitzgerald kennedy and the other of the baby jesus the light of the world two separate [2:11:40] pictures so i thank you for being here today i have various concerns about the direction of hhs [2:11:47] under your leadership but today i'd like to focus on some particularly harmful attacks made on the [2:11:52] disability community your actions and statements mr secretary have contributed to real fears anxieties [2:11:59] and consequences for millions of families i know some of my colleagues have raised these with you as well [2:12:06] but i want to again point out some of the statements that i think reveal a bias and a credibility issue [2:12:14] you previously said that people with autism and again i acknowledge your statements previously in [2:12:20] this hearing that these are the most profoundly autistic individuals but the impact it has on families [2:12:26] and statements that they will never hold a job never play baseball never write a poem never go out on a [2:12:30] date or never use a toilet unassisted those are incredibly impactful additional statements that they [2:12:37] individuals with autism and the epidemic that exist is catastrophic to our country and destroys [2:12:43] families as these words weren't insulting enough you've also insinuated and insulted the intelligence [2:12:52] of american people by linking autism to vaccines tylenol and circumcision mr kennedy not long ago any of [2:12:59] these claims would have been disqualifying for someone in your position especially given a lack of [2:13:04] scientific or medical training on your part these would have prompted uh dismissal and we would have [2:13:10] dismissed these statements as ridiculous and unverified theories but in this administration falsehoods [2:13:16] are routinely given a platform and are perpetuated incompetence is also often rewarded as is loyalty [2:13:25] and there's very rarely accountability for statements such as this mr secretary is a science teacher [2:13:31] at a college level for almost 30 years and the former chairman of the disabilities committee in the new [2:13:36] york state senate i have worked intensively with individuals with disabilities and their families [2:13:42] understanding their concerns so that experience goes back a long time and as a country we have made [2:13:48] massive strides in improving disability policy but now under your watch we're moving in the wrong direction [2:13:54] a one trillion dollar cut to medicaid that you have let happen and have tried to downplay is dismantling [2:14:02] many important programs including the administration for community living at hhs which oversees programs [2:14:08] supporting senior and individuals with disabilities and now you and secretary mcmahon seem to be working [2:14:16] behind closed doors to dismantle the department of education and expand hhs's role in key educational [2:14:22] programs unlike you career public servants at the department of education have worked for decades to [2:14:28] develop expertise expand educational opportunity and protect the rights of students with disabilities [2:14:36] i cannot believe that we are talking about shifting critical programs that are enshrined into law and [2:14:43] into the department of education over to hhs in lieu of going over on my comments i will uh [2:14:52] join my time here thank you mr chair gentlemen's time has expired it yields back i now recognize the [2:14:59] gentleman from pennsylvania and the uh champion of whole milk mr thompson uh thank you chairman [2:15:06] mr secretary good to see you again you too always appreciate the opportunities to be able to work with you and [2:15:11] and uh me and your leadership and your team uh that you put together [2:15:16] um my first question really is uh uh it's about the community services block grant program that's a program [2:15:23] i feel i'm just very passionate about that program it's original anti-poverty program um and really [2:15:32] doesn't matter what the source that led somebody into poverty and it really helps provide a pathway out [2:15:38] of poverty which is i think this is what we want for folks right to be able to realize the american dream [2:15:44] um and it's certainly an important program in my state of pennsylvania helping low-income individuals [2:15:50] and families get on a path to financial independence and currently over 13 and a half million dollars in [2:15:55] fiscal year 26 congressionally allocated funds uh to my state are being held up at omg and uh [2:16:04] secretary kenya just seeking your assistance and working at uh uh committing to help immediately [2:16:11] release the five months worth of csbg funds currently stalled at omg we we need them to to get those funds [2:16:19] out into those communities so you know you know helping to lift people out of poverty providing [2:16:25] them a pathway forward thank you for that comment congressman we're working as hard as we can to [2:16:30] get that money out the door no i appreciate that anything i can help with on that i'm i'm all in i seem [2:16:36] very very effective we're uh we're actually working to reauthorize community services block grant program [2:16:43] and you know reauthorization is important you know making sure it's currently uh on the question of [2:16:51] crispy cream donuts um uh i i'd have to say only with a glass of whole milk that that would be the [2:16:59] best combination now i've worked for uh over a decade to restore whole milk in our schools uh cafeterias [2:17:08] and was honored that my legislation whole milk for healthy kids act was signed into law by president trump [2:17:13] in january allowing schools the flexibility to offer flavored non-flavored whole and two percent milk [2:17:19] is common sense uh really common sense in science uh secretary kennedy i was pleased that the dietary [2:17:26] guidelines for americans that were released earlier this year recommended whole uh full fat milk [2:17:34] question for you how would including whole milk and school meal programs improve nutritional outcomes for [2:17:39] children it's absolutely critical it's criminal that we took it out of the schools for two generations [2:17:48] we had two generations of kids who were not growing up with the best access to the finest source of [2:17:55] micronutrients that build their brains build their body build their bones now putting it back in the [2:18:01] schools you know some of the schools are having trouble because um they have contracts with vendors that [2:18:10] don't include it but they are we were working with them to make sure that they all are serving home and the [2:18:16] kids love it kids are drinking it because it does it tastes better and you know people's bodies crave fats [2:18:25] and you have healthy fats in whole milk that you can't get anywhere else and it tastes better than [2:18:33] you know two percent or skim milk the kids love it much more and it's uh it just it's crazy that we [2:18:40] deprived all of those generations of kids on this critical food source yeah absolutely i know that [2:18:48] your colleague a good friend of mine's secretary brooke rollins is uh uh preparing um i anticipate [2:18:56] hopefully the next couple weeks to see published in a congressional record just clarity that [2:19:00] uh this uh will apply not just to school lunches but for uh breakfast and quite frankly any time [2:19:08] that meals are served within the school system any thoughts on what steps that can we take to help [2:19:13] schools successfully transition to offering whole milk the biggest uh help we need the biggest impediment [2:19:22] to getting good food into the schools is that a lot of schools have abandoned their kitchens oh you know [2:19:29] when i was a kid every school had a kitchen and that's not true today and um you know we need to [2:19:36] be able to help them uh build kitchens and to get you know to purchase cutlery and to purchase cutting boards [2:19:46] and all the things they need to actually be making good food there what we're finding is that the food at [2:19:54] good food is actually in many cases cheaper and the process and ultra processed foods that they were [2:20:01] getting is much cheaper than fast food in fact our program in the military we were shifting heat [2:20:08] access is shifting the military from the terrible appalling food that they had that only a third of [2:20:14] the troops were eating and we were paying 18.50 a day we're now on five bases about to go into 20 bases [2:20:23] with good rich whole food a lot of it locally sourced and we're feeding about ten dollars a day so it's [2:20:30] a good food is not more expensive as long as you're cooking it at home well thank you gentlemen's time [2:20:37] is required while we'd like to talk more about crispy cream and chocolate whole milk we're going to move [2:20:43] now to the gentlelady from connecticut uh mrs hayes thank you good afternoon firearms are the leading [2:20:52] leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the united states pediatricians trauma surgeons [2:20:58] emergency physicians and public health experts have repeatedly described firearm injury as a public [2:21:04] health emergency as my colleague stated when you were asked during your confirmation hearing if you [2:21:10] believe firearm violence was a public health crisis you answered with one word no you went on to say [2:21:18] you believe that hhs can explore solutions for the behavioral health and substance abuse epidemic [2:21:23] without compromising sacred rights and freedom according to ed week which may which measures [2:21:29] school shootings at k-12 schools resulting in injury or death there have been 26 school shootings since [2:21:35] you were sworn in according to the gun violence archive which measures any gun discharge on school grounds [2:21:41] there have been 240 incidents since you were sworn in in 2026 we have seen school shootings in [2:21:49] rockland maryland detroit michigan crandall texas ulver texas ferguson missouri oklahoma bethesda maryland [2:21:58] as you stated i understand that you don't have full jurisdiction over the law enforcement side the doj the fbi [2:22:08] and since this committee has refused to respond to my request for a hearing on school shootings i want [2:22:15] to ask you about the things you do have direct jurisdiction over hhs holds jurisdiction over public health [2:22:22] aspects focusing on mental health services trauma support for survivors data collection and data [2:22:28] collection to prevent gun violence since under your tenure we've seen threats of cuts to samsa [2:22:35] cuts to school-based mental health programs cuts to the cdc staffers who work on research and prevention [2:22:41] cuts to bipartisan community violence prevention programs they've been terminated so mr secretary since [2:22:49] you were sworn in and now have full visibility of the harm of gun violence to children has your [2:22:54] position changed do you believe gun violence is a public health crisis i believe it's a public health [2:23:00] crisis but it's not we don't have jurisdiction to the things you do have jurisdiction over and we're doing [2:23:08] those we're doing more studies on the ideology and cause of gun violence the first that have ever been [2:23:16] done in years sorry i have to i have to stop you and i only have five minutes and i apologize [2:23:23] you asked the question so i answered it well i want to know specifically why the research and the funding [2:23:27] has been cut for these programs that address trauma that address uh student survivors that [2:23:34] address school-based mental health programs for students who are affected by gun violence you're putting [2:23:39] out all of these programs all of these studies about keeping kids healthy keeping kids alive is part of [2:23:45] keeping them healthy and we're trying to do that by doing the studies to understand why people commit [2:23:50] mass shootings but you've also cut funding that has not been done before you've also cut [2:23:57] sir i'm gonna have to ask you to exercise some restraint you're a kennedy you know how oversight [2:24:03] hearings work and we don't want the second graders to think that your interruptions are rude [2:24:08] disrespectful or impatient so i'm gonna have to ask you to just allow me to finish my questions [2:24:13] well don't pretend you're in my home state of connecticut where i was a school teacher [2:24:17] in the classroom on the day 20 children were slaughtered and six educators we worked really [2:24:23] hard to see firsthand how to invest in our communities and provide prevention connecticut has has created [2:24:30] some of the strongest school-based violence prevention systems in the country through multi-disciplinary [2:24:35] threat assessment teams early intervention programs and partnerships that help schools identify [2:24:41] concerning behavior i put forth the bill the school violence prevention act to begin to collect data [2:24:48] to see how we can have federal programs to address these uh traumatic outcomes for kids many of the [2:24:58] the things that we fought for and the bipartisan safer communities act have been caught so i have to ask [2:25:04] you what have you done to address the health of children you point out so many other things [2:25:12] about um the food they eat uh all these other things what have you done to keep kids safe from gun [2:25:19] violence outside of commissioning a study as i said we have known law enforcement congress has not given us [2:25:27] law enforcement i'm not asking you about law enforcement sir what we do is we study issues and we study [2:25:35] problems and we're doing that with gun violence which has not specifically a study that you've that you've [2:25:40] commissioned we did it we've done i i think it's almost near completion we did a study on uh on school [2:25:49] shootings to look at what the shooters have in common what medications they may have been receiving whether [2:25:56] they were on ssris whether they were on benzos and we're expanding that now uh across the uh across [2:26:05] the agency to do even more of those the gentlelady's time has expired i'd like more information on that [2:26:11] study because i'm unaware of it i get that happy to bring the lady yields back i now recognize the [2:26:17] gentlelady from arizona miss grijalva thank you for your time today i have to say as i listen here [2:26:25] um with all the health initiatives that you're exposing i have grave concerns about the hhs bill [2:26:31] budget and the cuts that are being proposed i spent 20 years on a school board and saw firsthand how support [2:26:38] systems children have or don't have outside of the classroom shape their outcomes at the most basic [2:26:45] level children can't go to school if they're sick they can't learn on an empty stomach and their [2:26:50] families can't get ahead if they can't access health care i'd like to first talk to you about [2:26:54] your proposed cuts to medical research i was reading an article this morning that talked about your [2:26:59] affinity to perform your own medical research you apparently once cut the penis off a road killed [2:27:05] raccoon to study them later you speak fondly of medical research yet your budget cuts um show [2:27:11] that the national institutes of health are going to get a cut of more than 12 percent this level of [2:27:16] cuts would halt promising research forced layoffs of scientists and research staff and undermine [2:27:21] america's global leadership in medical intervention and innovation what specific diseases do you believe [2:27:28] deserve less medical research uh dei okay so but we've got a billion dollars do you have a specific [2:27:37] program a specific disease that deserves less funding i would say we're putting a billion dollars into [2:27:43] dei and dei research has never cured any disease it's never produced any new drug okay so between february of [2:27:53] 2025 in april of 2025 hhs canceled or froze more than 180 million dollars in national cancer institute [2:28:02] grants were you the one to approve these cuts to cancer grants or did that come directly from the white [2:28:08] house we're giving the highest uh one of the highest uh budget increases to nci you just answer my specific [2:28:16] question did you were you the one who approved those cuts or did that come from the white house [2:28:21] uh as i said we are raising the budget for nci for the national cancer institute in this budget [2:28:28] it's one of the only agencies throughout my sub agencies throughout my entire agency that's receiving [2:28:33] a raise okay so secretary kennedy you have the responsibility to tell the truth to this committee [2:28:39] and here are some examples of cuts in april of 2025 hhs canceled an nih grant regarding strategies to reduce [2:28:46] cancer and chronic disease in the arkansas delta in 2020 in 2025 a grant selective targeting of pancreatic [2:28:53] cancer was cut in march of 2025 a grant the automated digital imaging for cervical cancer screening those [2:29:00] the list continues to go on you've also noted that snap can be used to purchase whole foods and we look at [2:29:08] some of the recent data just in arizona the district that i represent 424 fewer people including 180 children [2:29:17] have lost food assistance since the enactment of hr1 my constituents are writing to me telling me that [2:29:22] they're hungry and cannot afford food as the secretary of health and human services will you make a statement [2:29:27] here today that you oppose hunger in this country well i oppose hunger in this country and we're doing we're the first [2:29:35] administration to be doing something about getting actually good food thank you i'm grateful that [2:29:40] you're standing against the republican hunger cuts um and if hhs spends 21 billion on physician training [2:29:50] yet only one percent goes to community-based programs like teaching health centers that actually reduce [2:29:55] primary care shortages why are we under investing in the models that work and for rural health for community [2:30:02] health centers i just put 143 million dollars into community health centers for physician retention [2:30:10] we also put 50 billion dollars into the rural transformation process a program which has a lot of [2:30:18] money for rural health care frontline physicians to retain them to keep them to do residencies there [2:30:26] it's unprecedented so just so you know only one percent of the funding that you've talked about [2:30:33] actually goes to teaching health centers and community health centers and health centers lower [2:30:37] costs and you know we're trying to solve the problem of of rural residencies and and rural access to rural [2:30:46] personnel and we're doing more than any administration in history so unfortunately there are five rural health [2:30:52] centers in arizona that are at risk of closure because of the cuts from this administration so what are you [2:30:59] doing to ensure that every medicaid patient can access a community health center there's 39 million americans [2:31:08] in community health centers and my personal belief is that it's the most effective health centers in our [2:31:16] country what they're doing is better than any and we're making big investments to make sure that they [2:31:22] continue we've we've raised the funding in this budget for community health centers and then [2:31:28] i'm finding other pockets of money funnel as i did last week 135 million dollars i i would really like [2:31:35] to see the data that shows that because the rural health communities and health centers in my district [2:31:41] are suffering greatly under this administration well i announced the program i yield back i announced the [2:31:46] program in arizona last week at a community health center the gentle ladies time has expired and i would [2:31:53] recommend making direct contact between the two of you so thank you i now recognize the gentleman from [2:31:59] california mr disaulnier thank you mr chairman mr secretary i want to start with something i think we [2:32:06] agree on i've had a long time since local government and in the district i represent the east bay of the san [2:32:12] francisco bay area we've been leaders on attacking uh the tobacco industry and protecting kids in particular so [2:32:18] you have made a comment um which i laud that you want to wipe out e-cigarettes in the country um i put [2:32:26] a lot of work into making sure that jewel was held accountable for what they were doing yet we still [2:32:31] have almost two million american kids using illegal e-cigarettes so where your jurisdiction is in [2:32:38] enforcement unfortunately you're cutting enforcement how will you uh do what you have said you want to do [2:32:44] and i believe you want to do is wipe out e-cigarette use and in this instance illegal e-cigarette use [2:32:51] by increasing enforcement do you mean vapes yes oh vapes jewel companies like we're increasing it for i [2:33:03] mean the the the budget increases enforcement for for chinese vapes and i've already been you know i was in [2:33:13] illinois a couple of weeks ago doing a major enforcement action we confiscated about a million [2:33:18] pam bondi and i about a million chinese vapes we there there there's a there there's an argument [2:33:26] for vapes vapes reduce cigarette tobacco smoking which is much worse that's that was the argument [2:33:34] jewel made and i'd be happy to have a further conversation i'd love to have that conversation [2:33:38] all right so um on another important matter and and i think and this goes to samsa behavioral health [2:33:45] uh you and i have some similar family uh background um my dad was a alcoholic um and he took his life [2:33:56] many years ago so since then i've spent a lot of time on behavioral health mental health uh mr walberg and [2:34:01] i have done initiatives on this and prevention and we now have according to the senator for disease control [2:34:08] a real mental health crisis in this country when it comes to kids cdc did a report in the prior [2:34:13] administration that uh almost half of adolescent pre-adolescent young women young girls women uh [2:34:20] were predisposed to depression and suicidal ideation so how can we work together to prevent that how can [2:34:28] we work together using research from samsa and other research around the world to make sure we start [2:34:34] making an impact and dropping these really serious behavioral mental health issues for our for future [2:34:41] generations congressman is a top priority for me i would love to hear your ideas we just um um announced [2:34:52] the great american recovery plan i'm working on with karen uh uh katherine burgham with my cousin [2:34:57] patrick kennedy who you know and with many other people who are top in their field including i think [2:35:04] jonathan sharon who you probably know from los angeles so we're looking for the best ideas and president [2:35:12] trump wants us to implement them this is a issue that is a high priority for him and as you point [2:35:18] out for me personally i would love to talk to you about what you think that we could be doing better [2:35:24] and if there's new ideas we want to hear them one of the big challenges i see both from my personal [2:35:30] background which i think you share parts of that certainly is the deployment of the amazing research that [2:35:36] nih samsa the university of california san francisco not far from my district is doing remarkable work [2:35:44] so the deployment of that research is a real challenge since parity we had a 300 increase in [2:35:50] americans asking for mental health and behavioral health services we've had a 300 decrease in young [2:35:56] people going into the field because they can't pay their student loans because the cost of of school and [2:36:04] training i talked to two young psychologists who said they had 350 000 in student debt they didn't [2:36:10] have any money they were clearly had a calling to this field but they didn't have any way that they [2:36:16] could recover their costs so that's another thing i think is of extreme urgency and very lastly in the [2:36:23] county i represent and being a former county uh elected we spent a lot of time thanks to my [2:36:30] predecessor mr miller the former chair of this committee doing prevention [2:36:34] but with the big ugly bill we've taken all of that prevention primary care clinics a lot of the [2:36:39] work you espouse mr miller was very important in changing the nutrition standards in this committee [2:36:46] on free and reduced lunch to make sure all the things that you've talked about actually delivered [2:36:50] that we're bringing farm to food really wonderful food to kids and we've changed in california i had a [2:36:55] bill in here about getting schools to be able to get grants for kitchen equipment that was more [2:37:03] appropriate to your last question more attuned to preparing food like that i spent 35 years in [2:37:08] the restaurant business so changing that and changing away from prevention under the big hr1 [2:37:15] is a huge contradiction to what i hear you say frequently that it's about prevention and knowledge [2:37:22] and in the county i represent they've already seen this huge increase and it's going to get larger and [2:37:26] larger to wrap up because all those people who we were working with in primary care and prevention [2:37:32] are now ending up with higher acuity in the county hospital room hospital emergency room so if you could [2:37:39] spend just a second talking about moving away from prevention and into crisis which this administration's [2:37:45] doing we'll have to create on another format but i think because the time has expired and we are [2:37:50] running close to the time limit so i now recognize the uh ranking member gentleman from virginia mr scott [2:37:58] thank you thank you mr chairman thank you mr secretary for being with us today let me make a couple of [2:38:03] comments before i get to questions the first is i want to join in the bipartisan support for the community [2:38:08] services block grant uh it's a strong program and has good support we want to make sure that stays as strong as [2:38:14] possible the other is to put the savings in the um hhs hhs budget budget and um in context we're talking [2:38:26] about a um savings in the budget of 16 billion dollars the big ugly bill added 3.5 trillion dollars to the [2:38:37] debt with interest maybe four trillion dollars uh rounding that would be to the nearest hundred billion [2:38:44] dollars so we're not even a significant part of a rounding error but these painful cuts are still [2:38:49] very meaningful the general lady from north carolina talked about the school meal equipment grant which [2:38:55] would help schools prepare healthy meals but that program was zeroed out another comment you had an [2:39:02] exchange with the gentleman from new jersey mr norcross about mental health parity we had a hearing [2:39:08] yesterday with the employee benefit security administration where the administrator could not [2:39:15] name any sanction he could impose to punish an insurance company for failing to comply with mental [2:39:22] health parity apparently he needs legislation because he didn't have the authority so as you work with mr [2:39:29] norcross i think he's got legislation pending we may have to do legislation to um to to fix that [2:39:37] we lost our case on that unfortunately we lost our case oh we couldn't help you fix it up with [2:39:44] legis legislation um mr secretary the gao is wrapping up uh responding to a request i made last year about [2:39:53] doge's access to data and i.t systems within many agencies including hhs because doge was having access to [2:40:03] data in hhs that would be extremely sensitive health information and we wanted to know what doge was [2:40:10] doing with that information regrettably we've been informed that that the department is not fully [2:40:16] cooperating with um gao and one reason was given that the department has concerns about potential [2:40:26] discrepancies between what the department produced in litigation and what it produce what it could [2:40:32] provide to the gao my initial concern was of course that hhs was not cooperating with the gao so it can [2:40:41] complete its work and now i'm concerned about whether or not the information given in litigation [2:40:46] was actually um accurate so mr secretary what did the meet what did this department mean when it told the [2:40:53] gao that it could not fully cooperate or respond because it was concerned about discrepancies [2:40:59] between what it produced in litigation and what it provided to the gao you know i don't know anything [2:41:06] about that issue but i will check with ogc and get back to you okay and can we get a commitment that [2:41:13] you get the department to cooperate with um with the gao so they can complete their work of course thank you [2:41:22] um the secretary the last several months the trump administration has signed deals with 16 [2:41:31] prescriptive drug companies in exchange for exemptions from the tariffs the white house and [2:41:37] you have claimed these deals have secured the lowest drug prices ever uh here's a problem we don't have [2:41:45] any public information about the terms of the deal so there's no way to confirm exactly what these [2:41:51] savings might be uh will you commit to releasing the information on those 16 most favored nation [2:42:00] agreements entered into between the trump administration and these 16 pharmaceutical companies [2:42:07] i can really i mean most the information is public the prices are public the old list price is public [2:42:16] um there are uh there's proprietary information that i cannot and uh business trade secrets that i cannot [2:42:23] but release and in fact in the democrats and the inflation reduction act um well legislation there [2:42:31] was an nda provision that recognized during the negotiations there there was going to be [2:42:37] the ability for hhs to deal privately and uh and make agreements which congress are you asking us [2:42:44] are you asking us to codify these agreements you said so in your opening statement yeah i we would like [2:42:50] you to codify them well we got to know what the how are we going to do that without getting the [2:42:55] agreements you'll know the end points which is what we need to come caught which is what we need [2:43:01] to codify if we don't we need if you know what the prices should be you can codify them and there's [2:43:08] there's nothing that prevents congress from meeting with those companies as well you do it all the [2:43:13] time and you do it in secret you're asking us to codify agreements and won't give us what the [2:43:19] agreements are we're asking you to codify a most favored nation status so that we get the lowest [2:43:25] price of any nation in the world mr chairman are you back i thank the gentlemen and i thank all my [2:43:32] colleagues from both sides of the aisle for their attention to this hearing and a hearing that we've [2:43:38] looked forward to and so i appreciate that and at this point i recognize the ranking member mr scott [2:43:45] for his closing remarks mr chairman we've had i think a good exchange with the with the secretary [2:43:55] across the political spectrum americans all want to do the same things we want to be able to pay our [2:44:00] bills eat nutritious food and see a doctor when we're sick and that's why it's difficult to see that we've [2:44:10] slashed public health we've made health care less affordable we've taken away safety net programs [2:44:17] the administration has undermined public health system wreaked havoc in the current and future [2:44:23] generations of americas and the budget cuts although they are significant and painful [2:44:31] don't come anywhere close to making up for the damage done to the budget and the big ugly bill i mean [2:44:38] you're talking about trillions and here we're talking tens of billions but those cuts are still extremely [2:44:46] painful ultimately the burden of the tax will fall on the shoulders of working americans food prices [2:44:52] energy bills healthcare costs don't disappear because investments are not in the president's budget [2:45:00] the burden of those expenses will go into working families who do not have the luxury of buying their [2:45:07] way out of these realities we live in the wealthiest country in the world and yet our citizens [2:45:12] are forced to go into debt to stay healthy the department must remember its mission to enhance [2:45:20] the health and well-being of all americans not just the wealthy few and it's essential the department focus [2:45:27] and calibrate its efforts to make working families health a high priority and the budget does not reflect [2:45:35] that you've got tens of um you've got millions of people losing their um health care under these uh [2:45:41] budgets that's going in the wrong direction hope we can solve that uh legislatively but in the meanwhile [2:45:51] i'll just yield back i thank the gentleman and i would certainly concur that i think we are on the same [2:45:59] track that we want to succeed we want benefits for our citizens we want our agencies to work as well as [2:46:09] they possibly can we want to end problems it's just the strategy the philosophy that sometimes gets [2:46:19] in our way but readily admit the fact that we have different points of view but i think as americans as [2:46:27] members of congress we want to move towards success and as i think about that mr secretary and thank you [2:46:33] so much for being here thank you very much um i i just want to make these few statements um i think i need [2:46:42] to step out okay maybe your staff will hear my statements um as the education workforce committee [2:46:58] we're responsible for the education department the department that's been here since 1980 a long time [2:47:09] after the start of of the other department what we're dealing with today health and human services [2:47:19] since 1980 we've spent three trillion dollars to pay for a department that has presided over failure [2:47:28] in our education and we see that with our outcomes that are showing us lagging behind the world and [2:47:37] that shouldn't be the case here lagging behind in education itself in workforce training and in [2:47:45] health care for this nation and that is the responsibility of this committee our nation's health [2:47:52] and health care have continued to spiral downward while spending is mushroomed we clearly need to change [2:48:01] our game plan and i think what we're talking about today sometimes talking past each other [2:48:06] is that it isn't just money that will bring the success and throwing more money as we've even [2:48:11] heard some of our colleagues talk about needing more money hasn't worked and so now we have a secretary [2:48:19] department and of course administration that wants to do things differently and yes they are different [2:48:24] but what has been being done we can argue has not worked and it's cost us a lot and we have the ability [2:48:34] to say at least to spin that for instance medicaid funding has been cut and it hasn't cutting out waste [2:48:44] fraud and abuse is a good thing accepting the fact that our democrat colleagues put forward a three-year [2:48:52] supplemental for medicaid as a result of covid that they voted on they passed three years and then we want [2:49:01] to live under that three-year plan and accept the fact that now we move on that's seen as a cut [2:49:06] when in fact it just benefited big insurance and not necessarily the people who had the needs and [2:49:14] so to try to restructure and become more efficient so that genuine needy individuals in whatever area [2:49:21] whether it's medicaid medicare autism mental health you name it we become more efficient we put it [2:49:29] toward the right sources we use we use research that puts us on the right track and yes we try it [2:49:36] i hope it works i tend to think it will we're having that opportunity right now and over the [2:49:45] past four years and i guess i could go back even in republican and democrat administrations we have [2:49:51] done the same old same old and it hasn't worked so i appreciate the fact that today we had the secretary [2:49:57] in front of us talking about controversial things talking about change talking about doing it a new way [2:50:03] talking about doing it based upon research and we can all disagree on research at times but nonetheless [2:50:10] it's an attempt to say what has been done hasn't worked it's cost us not only financially but in [2:50:18] lives and health safety security educational acumen across our nation we may disagree but i think we want [2:50:27] success i i i would state that clearly for the record both sides of the aisle we want to succeed [2:50:37] changes are tough but changes are underway and i'm looking forward to seeing if they work as i said i think [2:50:43] they will until that time we'll have further hearings but seeing no more questions to be asked [2:50:52] having gone through the time period i call this this meeting an adjournment thank you