About this transcript: This is a full AI-generated transcript of RFK Jr. faces Senate health committee hearing on HHS budget from Associated Press, published April 24, 2026. The transcript contains 19,813 words with timestamps and was generated using Whisper AI.
"the senate committee on health education labor and pensions will please come to order secretary kennedy thank you for coming before the committee i've been traveling traveling my state a lot and affordability whether it's gasoline groceries or health care is top of mind and when patients speak to..."
[0:03] the senate committee on health education labor and pensions will please come to order
[0:07] secretary kennedy thank you for coming before the committee i've been traveling traveling my state
[0:13] a lot and affordability whether it's gasoline groceries or health care is top of mind and when
[0:20] patients speak to me how expensive their prescription drugs are it resonates with them
[0:26] when i say wait a minute there's middlemen jacking up the price for their own profitability
[0:33] my constituents patients get that and they want help i'll go back to my experience practicing
[0:38] medicine if the patient has the power if the patient is the reason for the care and not an
[0:43] excuse for the bill then prices tend to come down the question is how do we achieve that i believe
[0:50] the president is focused on this and mr secretary i think you believe this as well so i look forward
[0:56] to hearing how this administration's proposed budget makes the patient the one in charge now there's
[1:02] some common sense things we can do how can we get life-saving drugs to patients faster and cheaper
[1:08] last week the health committee held a hearing on increasing access to generic and biosimilar drugs
[1:13] which cost less and allow patients to keep more money in their pockets while still having access to
[1:20] the medicines they need another thing that can lower cost is getting new drugs onto market more rapidly
[1:26] in february i released a report as to how to do that getting faster treatments which lowers r d
[1:32] costs that contribute to the research and development costs that if they're higher they contribute to
[1:37] higher prices while maintaining the gold standard for safety and effectiveness many of the ideas
[1:43] discussed in my report and by our witnesses at the hearing last week for both new treatments and
[1:47] generics were included in policies that the administration has proposed in this year's budget
[1:53] and this is something that we can work on together there are other ways to make health insurance and
[1:58] health care more affordable last week i released the mvp agenda money and value for patients mvp
[2:05] to build upon president trump's efforts to give money to patients rather than insurance companies
[2:10] to use for their out-of-pocket cost if paired with price transparency the patient can shop for the
[2:16] most affordable health care eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy and eliminating profit that doesn't flow to
[2:22] patients but flows to entities that pad cost in the system for their own benefit and that price transparency
[2:28] bill is a bipartisan bill by members of this committee while we speak of affordability let's just recognize
[2:35] that if we don't come up with treatments and cures for things like alzheimer's and dementia and cancer
[2:41] then the boomer generation could bankrupt our country for the cost of care for these conditions
[2:47] and the way to address that is to invest heavily in science and to use that investment effectively
[2:56] i would argue that includes taking the resources of the nih and making them more accessible to
[3:01] researchers at a wide variety of universities so that it is the collective brain power across our nation
[3:08] and not just the brain power at a few concentrated institutions or cities
[3:13] i credit dr badachara who came before our committee and was very encouraging regarding his understanding
[3:19] of these issues lastly standing up for patients includes standing up for the most vulnerable protecting
[3:28] women from the dangers of chemical abortion drugs is a step we can take right now to protect life
[3:35] frankly many pro-life louisianians have been disappointed by the lack of action on this front we need a
[3:42] willing partner to stand up for life mr secretary you have said that every abortion is a strategy
[3:49] i would say it's time to stop stalling on the safety study for abortion drugs it's time to reinstate
[3:55] the in-person safeguards protecting women from abuse and coercion i will note there are criminal charges
[4:03] against a woman against a mother in louisiana and in other jurisdictions i'm told boyfriends coercing or
[4:09] tricking a pregnant person into taking these pills all this would be eliminated with a restoration of the
[4:17] in-person requirement by the way this is public record the young woman the young victim was rosalie
[4:25] markovich so and there is a prosecution of the person that gave if there was an in-person requirement
[4:33] reinstated by this administration the doctor would have said do you want this pill and she said no i want
[4:39] my baby and instead she was coerced and that's the tragedy that has resulted secretary kennedy there's
[4:47] so much this committee and the president's administration can accomplish people in louisiana
[4:52] are struggling they expect congress and the administration to do our part as they do their
[4:59] part let's meet the moment thank you again mr secretary for coming to discuss the proposed hhs budget
[5:07] and with that i recognize senator sanders for his opening statement thank you very much mr chairman good
[5:12] to see you again secretary kennedy um let me just respond to the chairman a strong majority of the
[5:21] american people believe that it is women who have the right to control their own lives not government uh
[5:29] and i happen to believe uh that is where we should be going uh as a nation that's a choice of women
[5:36] not the government it is no secret uh that the american health care system is broken every place i go
[5:45] when i speak i ask people to raise their hands conservative areas progressive areas people
[5:50] understand that there is something fundamentally wrong when we are spending twice as much per capita
[5:56] on health care as the people of any other nation and yet 85 million americans are uninsured or
[6:02] underinsured we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs our life expectancy
[6:07] is significantly lower than other wealthy nations and for working class people it is six years shorter
[6:15] than for wealthy people in this country system is broken it is designed to make the insurance
[6:21] companies and the drug companies extremely wealthy and that is what's happening and ordinary people are
[6:28] being left behind i would have hoped that we would have an administration that would stand up for
[6:36] average people and say you know what let's do what every other major country on earth does guarantee
[6:42] health care to all people think that's a radical idea every other country on earth does it
[6:46] and they spend substantially less than we do and yet we are moving in exactly the opposite direction
[6:53] as a result of the quote-unquote big beautiful bill 15 million americans have been thrown off the
[6:58] health care that they need but that's not the only problem that we have with what secretary kennedy
[7:04] and the president are doing i talk to doctors as i'm sure everybody on this committee does
[7:10] uh in my own state of vermont and all over this country and doctors are extremely concerned by
[7:17] many of the actions that we're seeing from hhs and the cdc they are concerned that secretary kennedy
[7:26] has directed the centers for disease control to publish false information on its website suggesting
[7:33] that childhood vaccines cause autism despite the findings of more than 40 scientific studies in seven
[7:41] countries that there is no link between vaccines and autism we have seen hhs spread misinformation
[7:51] about the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine during the largest measles outbreak in the
[7:57] united states in over 30 years we have seen hhs remove the director of the cdc because she refused to
[8:05] rubber stamp the very dangerous and unstantiated vaccine recommendations coming from the agency we have
[8:14] seen the agency defund promising vaccine research that will leave us woefully unprepared mr chairman
[8:22] you will remember a couple of years ago we had the leading experts in this country and we asked them
[8:26] i think we all did do you anticipate another pandemic after covet and the answer was unanimously yes there
[8:33] is a fear nobody knows when another pandemic will come and we are now woefully unprepared to address
[8:41] that crisis if and when it comes we have seen cdc and hhs under secretary kennedy's leadership
[8:50] we have seen now 3 800 people in america have been infected with measles the worst outbreak in over 30
[8:57] years vaccination rates across the country are falling because parents i think are very confused
[9:03] about what they're hearing from washington and children are dying as a result so right now we are
[9:13] looking at a healthcare system which is broken and we have leadership in washington which is making
[9:19] it even worse and what i will chat with you about when i have my question secretary kennedy is things
[9:26] that you have written which called in doubt the very existence of the germ theory which is the modern
[9:34] basis of modern medicine yeah let's let's talk about that in a minute but bottom line is what we
[9:42] would like to see is a broken healthcare system improved most of us believe that healthcare is
[9:49] a human right that all people should have healthcare and that we need public health policies which keep
[9:55] our kids and all people healthy not moving us in the other direction thank you mr chairman thank you
[10:03] we're joined today by the honorable robert f kennedy jr the 26th secretary of health and human
[10:09] services in his role as secretary mr kennedy is responsible for overseeing the nation's civilian
[10:15] federal health agencies which support direct services for over 150 million americans and keep
[10:21] all americans safe by supporting sound science and through the regulation of medical and consumer products
[10:27] i look forward to hearing from you today sir thank you for joining us can you hear me okay chairman
[10:42] cassidy ranking member saunders and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to
[10:48] appear before you today to talk about the president's 2027 budget for hhs we stand at a generational
[10:56] turning point our children are the sickest generation in modern history and decades the failed policies
[11:03] captured agencies and profit-driven systems cost it parents across the country demanded change and we are
[11:11] delivering it we're ending the era of federal policies that fueled this chronic disease epidemic and
[11:17] replacing them with policies that put the health of americans first president trump and i are challenging
[11:24] the status quo and the institutions that defend it as we work to make america healthy again in just 15
[11:33] months hhs has delivered historic wins we negotiated most favored nation drug prices with 16 of the largest drug
[11:41] companies so americans no longer pay more than other people in wealthy countries for the same medications
[11:50] we're bringing real transparency to healthcare pricing so that patients know the cost of care before they
[11:55] receive it i use the full convening power of the federal government to bring health insurance ceos to the
[12:02] table to reform prior authorization and i convene the 405 biggest tech companies in our country
[12:11] to end information blocking and allow american patients access to their health records on their cell
[12:18] phones for the first time in history for cutting red tape speeding decisions and demanding transparency
[12:26] we're also cracking down on waste fraud and abuse this year hhs and usda issued new dietary guidelines that put
[12:36] real whole food at the center of the american plate we flipped the food pyramid upside down and sent a clear
[12:44] message to americans eat real food hhs has also opened the door to partnerships with the industry trade
[12:54] associations non-profits and advocacy groups more than 50 medical schools have committed to expand nutrition
[13:02] education from an average of just two hours to 40 hours food manufacturers are stepping up to more than 40
[13:10] percent of the food industry has committed to phase out petroleum-based eyes by year end and many have
[13:17] already eliminated them in conjunction with these efforts fda approved six natural food colorings from fruits
[13:25] and vegetables through presence trump's great american recovery initiative hhs is matching compassion with
[13:32] action to help americans break the cycle of addiction at hhs we are prioritizing patients with ultra rare diseases
[13:42] and their families and driving faster access to life-saving treatments we're restoring gold standard
[13:49] science and integrity across the agency we're protecting children from sex rejecting procedures that expose them to
[13:57] irreversible harm we're eliminating outdated and misleading warning labels on hormone therapies used to treat
[14:05] women women during menopause we're strengthening oversight of organ procurement or implementing
[14:13] operations stork speed to ensure the safety and quality of infant formula we're applying that same focus
[14:20] and urgency to rural america the rural health transformation fund delivers the largest investment in rural
[14:27] health in our nation's history 50 billion dollars over five years to strengthen rural hospitals and ensure americans can
[14:36] access the care they need no matter where they live the hhs announced more than 135 million dollar investment
[14:43] this month to expand rural residency programs and nutrition services the data is clear when fishes physicians
[14:52] train in rural communities they are far more likely to stay and serve there the president's budget puts all
[15:00] these priorities in action it invests in prevention because preventing disease costs less delivers better
[15:08] outcomes than treating it as my uncle president john f kennedy said progress is a nice word but change
[15:15] change is its motivator and change has its enemies we see those forces clearly entrenched interests defenders of a failing
[15:24] status quo and institutions that put profits ahead of the american people add resistance underscores the urgency of
[15:33] this moment we can reverse chronic disease improve public health and lower costs i stand ready to work with this
[15:41] committee in congress to seize this opportunity to implement and codify lasting and generational reform in american
[15:49] health care for our country for our children and for the healthy american people together we can make america healthy again
[15:58] thank you thank you mr secretary i think you've given a couple of these recently you hit it right on time
[16:07] i shall begin mr secretary as i mentioned in my opening statements i'm concerned that one of the
[16:16] the biden administration's pro-abortion policy which is the removal of the in-person dispensing requirement
[16:22] for chemical abortion drugs is still in place and by the way senator sanders objected to me objecting to
[16:29] that we're speaking about people ordering drugs and then tricking a woman into taking them or coercing them
[16:36] into taking it and these are subject to criminal charges in courts right now we should all be opposed to that
[16:44] secretary kennedy why has the department not acted with greater urgency on reinstating the in-person
[16:53] dispensing requirement uh senator cassidy i appreciate your comments i unfortunately will not be able to
[17:02] talk about that i i thought that might be the answer which is frustrating because this has been litigated
[17:07] for years at some point we'll need to but but i thought that might happen so moving off the litigation
[17:13] last month my colleagues and i asked you to address unapproved and misbranded chemical abortion drugs
[17:21] coming from international providers bypassing fda the first trump administration worked on the issue
[17:28] but the problem continues why hasn't the department taken steps to stop the illegal importation
[17:35] and sale of counterfeit and unapproved abortion drugs we take our responsibilities seriously to uh to prosecute
[17:48] people who are selling misbranded drugs and i can talk to my enforcement unit at fda to uh to figure out
[17:57] why that's not happening to your satisfaction but as far as i know we're doing that to the utmost possible
[18:06] that is not the case um put it this way it may be as much as possible but that would be no effort
[18:11] whatsoever and so i say that because however you feel about these issues illegal and counterfeit drugs
[18:17] being sold and imported should be a common concern next mr secretary you have talked about restoring
[18:24] trust in the agency around the issue of immunization and people lost trust during the pandemic but i think
[18:32] it's safe to say the trust gap has worsened over the last year due to false statements about safety and
[18:39] efficacy of vaccines for preventable diseases like measles now i am a guy who has seen people die
[18:48] from vaccine preventable diseases i didn't hear you i'm a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine
[18:54] preventable diseases and when i see outbreaks numbering in the thousands and people dying once more
[19:00] from vaccine preventable diseases particularly children it it seems more than tragic now the cdc
[19:08] director i applaud you have said in a previous hearing that you did you were not involved in
[19:13] her selection but you agree with president trump's selection i've not met with her yet formally but i
[19:17] agree as well she seems to be a qualified person i did not say that i was not involved in her selection
[19:24] i didn't follow but but but so my question here with the new cdc director whomever whoever she or he is
[19:33] there are currently political appointees at cdc who have worked to undermine trust and immunizations
[19:40] will the new director whoever she is have the right to make decisions independently of those of those
[19:47] political appointees and or replace them uh or otherwise reassign them so they cannot continue to
[19:54] actively undermine trust and immunizations your characterization of the political appointees is
[20:00] wrong and uh the cdc director has that power now so she will have if she wishes to if she wishes to
[20:10] make a decision independently of them she shall be allowed to make that decision independently that's
[20:17] correct oh yes okay that's pertinent this summer we're hosting the world cup and celebrating america's
[20:24] 250th birthday tourists from all over the world will come to the united states unfortunately some
[20:31] of them will bring vaccine preventable diseases like measles and unfortunately our measles immunization
[20:36] rates have fallen which means that this increases the risk risk of a measles outbreak in the u.s
[20:42] what steps is hhs taking to address the outbreaks that may arise from the world cup and the folks coming
[20:49] here uh mr chairman we've done better at controlling the measles outbreak than any country in the world
[20:56] we this is a global outbreak uh it started before i came to office most of a eighty percent of children
[21:04] affected are over five years old which means their decision not to back and vaccinate predated my
[21:09] appointment we have limited that last year to 2200 cases mexico at three times that much with one-third of
[21:18] our population canada had doubled that much with one-eighth of our population europe at 127 000 cases
[21:27] the year before we have a global pandemic it has nothing to do with me i wasn't in any of those
[21:33] countries it has we should not be compared to a better job at limiting it in any country in the world
[21:40] and you can talk to governor mcmaster about that and governor abbott about the help that we've given them
[21:46] in texas we know how to control the outbreaks the question was what steps has the administration
[21:51] taken to track the diseases that would come in potentially through these you're pointing out
[21:56] that other countries have outbreaks which increases the likelihood they will bring that here and our
[22:01] immunization rates have fallen below 95 percent unfortunately i'm out of time on this question i will
[22:07] yield to senator sanders but i may come back because that question wasn't answered i can tell you we
[22:12] are now we are laser focused on that we have booths and testing booths and institutions all over the
[22:21] games okay senator sanders thank you secretary kenny thanks for being with us um in your book the real
[22:34] anthony fauci you wrote and i quote a doctrinal canon of the germ theory credits vaccines for the dramatic
[22:43] declines of infectious diseases disease mortalities in north america and europe during the 20th century
[22:50] most americans accept this claim as dogma it will therefore come as a surprise to learn that it is
[22:57] simply untrue but despite your assertion in your book according to a peer-reviewed study in the lancet
[23:07] led by the world health organizations vaccine has have vaccines have saved the lives of more than 150
[23:15] million people and reduced infant deaths by 40 percent over the past 50 years so my question is a
[23:22] simple one do you still believe that one of the central tenets of the germ theory that vaccines
[23:29] sharply reduce infant mortality is quote unquote simply untrue what i was saying in that book the first of
[23:36] all the the study you cited is a modeling study it's a what sorry a modeling study cdc has actually done
[23:45] a real study that answers that question it's called guyer g-u-i-e-r 20 or 2000 and it says that the
[23:55] 80 percent mortality and chronic disease that took play in mortalities from chronic disease that took
[24:01] place in the 20th century that almost none of it was attributable to vaccination it was attributable to
[24:08] hygiene to uh sewer plants the better water supplies to engineering that got oranges i have to interrupt
[24:18] you because i have other questions you're entitled to your view as that is that's cdc's view well you're
[24:25] entitled to cdc's view but according to the world health organization and scientists all over the world
[24:34] vaccine have played vaccines have played an enormous role in saving lives i don't contest that i'm just
[24:40] saying if you want to talk about what why disease mortalities disappeared in the 20th century it was
[24:46] not vaccines well you are in a minority all right i got other questions one second all right all right
[24:54] secretary kennedy you have talked about i think correctly the fact that a lot of our kids are eating
[25:02] ultra processed food foods high in sugar uh we have as you know uh an epidemic in obesity in this country
[25:11] we spend zillions of dollars dealing with diabetes caused by obesity uh i believe that we should follow
[25:18] countries like chile mexico and put strong warning labels on products that will tell show parents uh about
[25:28] the nature of the food uh their kids are uh eating uh so my question to you is how long will it take before
[25:38] your agency puts strong warning labels on unhealthy food and beverages early in april we did our final
[25:49] regulations of finally having a definition for what ultra processed food is that is now in the
[25:55] interagency process we have no control over what happens there with the other agencies as soon as
[26:01] it comes back to us we're going to do the labeling record all right let me ask you this uh president
[26:05] trump's nominee for surgeon general casey means told this committee that she agreed with me that junk food
[26:13] ads in the united states should be banned from tv what do you think do you agree with her i would
[26:23] support that good in other words what we're seeing now is these big food industry companies spending
[26:31] huge amounts of money telling kids to eat crap and i think it would make a lot of sense if we banned
[26:38] those ads from tv i'm hearing you saying that you agree with me on that the only hesitation i was was
[26:44] we um we tried to do a smoking ban on tv and the tobacco companies voluntarily came to the table so
[26:52] and which was a good thing and i think the same uh the same arguments apply for junk food they're
[26:58] probably even worse for americans than smoking good well art i would hope you take a leadership role in
[27:04] making it clear that we should get these ads which you know just entice kids and dick kids to really bad
[27:10] food off the air all right good all right thank you mr chairman senator paul senator kenny thanks for appearing
[27:18] i think uh senator sanders makes a great point on obesity and type 2 diabetes and you know replacing
[27:25] ads or warning people that food is bad would be one thing but one thing we could do immediately would
[27:30] be having the taxpayer quit subsidizing bad food so soda infused with sugar uh chips dips twinkies ding
[27:39] dongs donuts bags of candy we should agree and i can't understand i've had this bill for a couple years we
[27:46] need to get somebody across the aisle that cares about nutrition enough to say we shouldn't subsidize
[27:51] bad things and one thing i think you have done is actually directed the states and given states waivers
[27:57] to try to do this but we need to codify that and i won't ask you a question on this i just hope that
[28:02] the administration will think about supporting the bill and let letting other republicans know that you
[28:07] will support it if it comes through my question is this though because i think there's there's agreement to
[28:13] a lot of problems but we disagree on solutions we agree with the problem of drug high drug prices
[28:17] it's a problem um some people really on both sides say well if we just publish the price the problem
[28:23] will go away i'm one who doesn't believe that at all because i think most prices are fixed and most
[28:29] consumers really don't care about the price is why the prices are high now why don't they care about
[28:34] the price because they don't pay it you know it's either fixed through their insurance company it's fixed
[28:38] through medicare it's fixed through medicaid almost all the prices are fixed the only people
[28:43] actually pay the price of the drugs and care about the price of drugs or people have a high deductible
[28:47] and have an hsa so there are a couple things we could do that would transform the drug pricing world
[28:53] and the insurance world that costs nothing costs nothing to the taxpayer only about 10 percent of
[28:59] people have an hsa why because the government rules say your insurance product does it is not eligible
[29:05] for an hsa i'd make everybody eligible for an hsa i'd let your health savings account pay for your
[29:11] premium and your deductible i'd let your hsa pay for healthy things gym membership diet program
[29:18] all kinds of stuff that could be for better health let everybody have an hsa raise the limits
[29:23] i would also let people negotiate what happens is if i go to the store and want to negotiate over the
[29:29] price nobody cares but if i joined a co-op like costco or amazon through an association health plan
[29:36] they could bid for my insurance costco has 44 million members you think they're gonna have more
[29:40] leverage than me and my five employees so in the first trump administration uh president trump did
[29:47] an executive order on this we have legislation to do this and we're talking to people in administration
[29:53] but we'd appreciate help on letting people join a co-op or association plan regardless of their
[29:59] employment right now it has to be you have to all be carpenters you have to all be farmers or cattlemen
[30:04] we think anybody that you know belongs to costco or amazon let them be a purchaser of insurance by loosening
[30:11] up the laws and that would work so i'd appreciate your idea on legalizing increasing hsa's and then
[30:17] legalizing the concept of letting people buy insurance or drugs through like a large co-op across state lines
[30:24] and wouldn't it be great if we took the billions of dollars that we're giving to the insurance industry
[30:33] which increased its share value by a thousand percent after the passage of obamacare wouldn't
[30:40] it be better if we took that money and gave it to people to buy their own hsa's and look which gives
[30:47] them value-based care and then let them actually participate in a market that will drive down prices
[30:54] the only reason i would differ on that because i'm not sure how you're talking about taking the money from
[30:57] the insurance companies but i'd be for the idea that the insurance companies would get less of the take
[31:03] if we expanded hsa's and you were negotiating directly it's another way to put it senator well
[31:08] and then the money would be more directed towards the individual and the individual would be able
[31:11] to use it the other thing about it that people don't think through is they say only rich people
[31:16] have hsa's well let's say only 10 or 20 percent of people at hsa's because they bid on the prices it
[31:21] brings down the price for everybody and when you have innovations in the marketplace rich people do get
[31:26] them before the rest of us get them but it always drives the price down as it spreads to the rest of the
[31:31] marketplace but i think there are things we could do and would be open to and the the thing on
[31:37] restricting bad foods from being subsidized and then the idea of negotiating as a cop neither one of
[31:42] these costs money or even saves money but ultimately would give a lot more power to the consumer i would
[31:49] just add that uh 50 percent of the states have now at our request applied for waivers uh so that they
[31:58] can get sandy's uh soda and candies off of snap we're paying for the poorest kids 63 million poorest kids
[32:06] in this country to get diabetes and then we're treating 78 of them with medicaid afterwards so we're
[32:12] paying at both ends it makes no sense and once we finalize the ultra processed food definition we can ask
[32:20] we can ask the states to start adding that to their snap waivers i agree completely and if i think if
[32:26] you did that and if we did that across the united states it could be the most important thing we do
[32:30] for the health of americans and particularly for poor kids that we've ever done in our history we have
[32:36] to get beyond this oh everybody has a right to a bag of candy no we need to have healthy foods there's lots
[32:41] of other food that you can buy but we should restrict it from the unhealthy things and i appreciate your
[32:46] efforts on this senator kane okay thank you mr chair and thank you mr secretary secretary kennedy who
[32:53] at hhs is responsible for monitoring whether health facilities like hospitals are closing as a result of
[33:03] changes that were included in the reconciliation bill last summer the same guy who was responsible for
[33:14] monitoring the closures for hospitals due to the aca regulations yeah who who who is it and what
[33:21] department is that that would be dr oz so that that right now dr oz is responsible for monitoring those
[33:29] closures he's ultimately responsible right yeah so but i mean do you have anybody in hhs like in the
[33:36] secretary's office that is monitoring to see what's happening with the closures of facilities since the
[33:41] reconciliation we have a cms council but that would be within cms okay because i want to bring to the
[33:48] attention of my colleagues and to the secretary's office closures in virginia because of the
[33:54] reconciliation bill the bill was passed right at the beginning of july 2025 less than two months later on
[34:02] september 4th augusta medical group which is located in fishersville virginia rural shenandoah county
[34:09] announced the closure of three clinics two rural primary care clinics and one urgent care clinic
[34:15] and in their announcement augusta health said the consolidation is part of augusta health's ongoing
[34:21] response to the one big beautiful bill act and the resulting realities for health care delivery then on
[34:28] december 19th 2025 centra announced its decision to discontinue all ob-gyn services at their central
[34:37] south side community hospital in farmville which is in rural south side virginia and the announcement
[34:42] centra said quote central like other rural health care providers must adapt to significant financial
[34:48] and operational challenges including recently enacted reductions in federal health care funding
[34:55] and then just in the last two weeks valley health which provides health care in the northern
[35:00] shenandoah valley in and around winchester announced it was making significant changes across its
[35:06] hospital system including closing an observation unit that serves patients too sick for discharge
[35:13] in the announcement the system's president said it quote has become more urgent following the adoption
[35:20] of the house resolution one which will reduce valley health's funding by over 80 million dollars
[35:26] annually mr chard like to introduce into the record these announcements and press articles
[35:31] about the closures of facilities in virginia without the bill um these are not hypothetical losses the the
[35:40] medicaid adjustments from last year were actually not scheduled to actually be implemented for a while
[35:47] but these institutions look at the medicaid percentage of their population and the medicaid changes and they
[35:54] realize they just can't make it work and all of these closures in virginia uh the ob-gyn ward in farmville
[36:01] so you have to travel a lot farther to have kids primary health clinics all of them are in rural virginia
[36:08] and overall the virginia hospital association indicates that they'll lose 34 billion dollars over
[36:14] 10 years as a result of the obba i now that i know that cms should focus on that or dr oz should focus on
[36:23] that i'll direct my questions that way but i think it's important for everybody in this room to know
[36:29] if these closures in rural virginia are happening even before the medicaid changes get implemented
[36:36] we're going to see an awful lot more of them can i reply please please uh first of all senator i think
[36:44] it's an absolute tragedy to lose those hospitals i know what that does to our rural areas from touring
[36:49] the country that you're not just denying people access to health care but it is an economic driver for
[36:54] those communities it's the largest employer in many cases the highest pay and businesses will never
[37:02] move there once that facility closed so we're doing everything in our power this is not a problem that
[37:08] was created by the trump administration the one big beautiful bill which hasn't even gone into place yet
[37:13] yeah but can i just say 120 of those hospitals for the past 10 years yeah not not in virginia
[37:20] interestingly enough not in virginia and all three of these cited the reconciliation bill as the
[37:27] reason for the closures i'm glad you walked through the challenges because you're right it's not just
[37:31] the loss of patient care it's also the loss of jobs health care jobs and as you point out once the
[37:38] hospital closes it's really difficult for businesses to move into these communities because they realize we
[37:44] can't move because there's no health care available so i i like the fact that you connect all the dots in
[37:49] this and i'm just urging my colleagues as these medicaid cuts actually get implemented i think these
[37:55] closures are going to become even more dramatic and need this committee's attention i yield back mr
[38:00] chair senator and dr marshall thank you mr chairman i just want to remind everybody that
[38:09] medicaid spending is going to be going up hundreds of billions of dollars over the next several years
[38:15] i i think the trump administration has done more for rural health care and the rural economy than any
[38:21] administration mr secretary maybe you just talk a little bit about the monies i mean real monies a
[38:25] billion dollars in the medicaid uh range an extra billion dollars we've given to kansas another 220
[38:33] million dollars for the rural health transformation fund is the what has the trump administration done
[38:39] to help fund rural health care well first of all you know one of the democratic talking points is that
[38:45] we've cut medicaid by a trillion dollars but cbo disagrees with that cbo the reason cbo record
[38:52] reported from two weeks ago as the medicaid will raise will raise from about 600 a billion to 900
[39:00] billion by 2036 a 47 percent increase only in washington is that considered a cut
[39:08] second of all the president is making the biggest investment in rural health of any administration
[39:13] in history the rural health transformation fund if it gives 50 billion dollars and just to put that
[39:19] in context over five years medicaid which everybody's which we've just heard is is closing hospitals
[39:28] medicaid only gives seven percent of its funding to rural hospitals it's about 20 billion dollars a year
[39:35] we are now increasing that influx of federal funds by 50 percent per year 10 extra billion dollars a year
[39:43] this gives those hospitals a chance to restructure their to rebuild their infrastructure
[39:51] to install telehealth to remodel themselves as you've pointed out a hospital a hospital cannot exist the
[39:59] business model is failed for a lot of those hospitals again 1.6 patients a day you cannot have an
[40:06] overnight hospital and have a business model that works we need to have another model we need to help
[40:12] them transition to that and that's one of the things that the rural health transformation fund will do
[40:18] yeah thanks secretary kennedy let's talk about something near and dear to our hearts is is you were
[40:23] committed to make america healthy again and very specifically targeting children and their health
[40:30] just tell me some of the things that you've done and where are we going briefly what's what's the
[40:34] goals for the next year to help make america healthy again well i think thank you for that question
[40:40] senator i think the most you know the probably the most impactful thing that we've done is change the
[40:45] food pyramid the food pyramid was written by food industry lobbyists for 50 years
[40:51] and it was it reflected the mercantile impulses of those companies that put fruit loops at the top of
[40:59] the food pyramid we have now done it a science-based guideline the best nutritionists in our country from
[41:05] the biggest universities came together for almost a year in a science-based guidance and that guy that
[41:13] emphasized protein vegetables whole grains that will now revolutionize the dietary culture in this
[41:22] country because we're changing the subsidy program so we give 405 million dollars just from usda a day
[41:29] food subsidies to the wix program to school lunches to the indian health services to snap and all these
[41:37] other programs and they will now change to align with the dietary guidelines military is now changing
[41:46] the uh the food on all of its bases and so we're going to see massive changes across the culture and
[41:54] we're going to see more availability of this food and i can explain why that'll happen but i think that's
[41:59] the most important thing getting rid of the grass standards which we've had bipartisan support on there
[42:06] on that senator saunders has been a leader on that issue we are actually doing it now we have final
[42:13] regulations again in the interagency process on grass right now we're getting rid of food dyes we're
[42:21] reforming uh through operation stork speed infant formula redoing the nutrients uh making sure to test
[42:30] for all the contaminants if i could just get one more one more question so thank you and i do
[42:35] commend you you've done your job you guys have done great work with uh transparency with prior
[42:41] authorization you're targeting to talk about grass but i think we need to look at a mirror and so
[42:46] many of my colleagues are you know saying what have you done or not what have you done but we have bills
[42:50] right before us our transparency our price tag bills 18 bipartisan co-sponsors our prior authorization
[42:56] bill 68 co-sponsors let's get those across the finish line grass legislation our maha package we just
[43:03] released a large hsa package of bills all of these would drive down the cost of health care codifying
[43:10] much what you have done as well but congress needs to we need to do our job too and uh quit quit treading
[43:15] water up here thank you mr secretary thank you senator marshall mr secretary before i go to senator hassan
[43:24] uh what was the cdc paper you said attributed improvements in longevity to pub to sewer treatment
[43:34] for example not vaccines i'm looking for that on chat gpt and it says it doesn't exist so what is that
[43:39] called guyer the lead author is guyer g-u-i-e-r there's another one that came out in 1977 that was a
[43:49] required rating in virtually every medical school that says the same thing and actually who's the author of
[43:54] that one that one was called mckinley and mckinley mckinley mckinley mckinley and mckinley um that one
[44:00] is not cdc according that's not the guyer is cdc and johns hopkins senator hassan well thanks mr
[44:08] chair and good to see you again secretary kennedy um look i agree with you that all americans should
[44:15] have access to healthy food however president trump has made it far harder for families to afford their
[44:20] groceries last year the typical family paid hundreds of dollars more than they did the previous year
[44:26] on groceries such as fresh vegetables fresh fruit meat coffee and dairy and while a few items such
[44:33] as eggs have gotten cheaper this year other staples like beef continue to reach historic highs under
[44:38] president trump do these high grocery prices make it easier or harder for families to eat fresh healthy
[44:44] foods i would say that beef has dropped by one percent in the last quarter i know look these prices are
[44:52] up twenty percent banana prices are up nearly seven percent since president trump took office cheese
[44:57] prices are up six percent so again when groceries get more expensive easier or harder for families to
[45:02] afford the very healthy foods that you want them to eat well there's only you can eat beef you can eat
[45:09] poultry you can eat fish and beef is the price of beef is dictated by the size of the herd the herd dropped
[45:17] look you're you're not answering but obviously if the food is more expensive president trump for something
[45:21] that he didn't do well let's let's take a look at this image did you post this image in 2024
[45:27] about grocery prices being too high i don't recall well you did post it that that's your that's your handle
[45:34] up there and it's and i agree that grocery prices were too high in 2024 but under president trump they
[45:41] have skyrocketed even further so now uh let's go to an updated version of this post um will you post this
[45:52] the most expensive vehicle oh because president trump actually brought down a grocery cost for most of his
[45:58] term i think there's been a raise recently in the price of everything look um families are facing
[46:05] historic prices at the register you don't need to be a secretary of health and human services to know
[46:12] that you don't need to be a united states senator to know that the people in new hampshire the people
[46:16] across this country know that because they go to grocery stores today and the fact that you don't
[46:21] you either don't know it or you don't want to admit it just shows how out of touch you and the trump
[46:27] administration are now let's go to another issue earlier this year president trump signed an executive order
[46:33] to increase production of the pesticide glyphosate commonly known as roundup and to grant immunity
[46:40] from liability to the company that makes it you've said that glyphosate causes cancer you told senator
[46:47] schatz yesterday that you still believe that glyphosate causes cancer and you expressed displeasure
[46:55] about the president's glyphosate order and that the pres and you also told senator schatz that the
[47:00] president's reasoning had to do with national security so does president trump's executive order
[47:07] does his decision mean that more americans are likely to be exposed to this chemical and get cancer
[47:13] no it doesn't because it doesn't increase the use of glyphosate the president has invested more
[47:21] in trying to transition off of glyphosate than any other president exactly when and how did he do that he
[47:28] did an executive order that says increase the production of it for both military for weapons
[47:34] and for as herbicides and he granted immunity to the huge corporation that produces this a corporation
[47:43] that i believe you once sued and got recovery from because this chemical caused cancer so does president
[47:51] trump's decision mean that if there's more of this chemical there's going to be more cancer yes or no
[47:56] yeah it's not increasing production it's increasing domestic production to displace the chinese
[48:04] production because 97 of our corn crop is dependent on glyphosate 98 of our soy crop and 100 of them is
[48:12] coming yet here's the thing when you were running to get the maha vote you told people you would stand
[48:20] up to chemical companies you would take carcinogens out of our out of our agricultural system you said
[48:28] that you would get these chemicals out of foods that's what you said you would do to make america
[48:33] healthy again and yet when push comes to shove and a big corporation i mean talk about the status quo here
[48:39] spare monsanto or something like that was the big company and when the president of the united states
[48:45] rather than trying to work to find alternatives rather than try to get him to limit that executive order
[48:51] you just stood down instead of standing up thank you you asked what president trump has done he's
[48:55] given me 200 million dollars to help get america off of glyphosate well i would look forward to finding
[49:01] out who is doing the research and the science and are you working and are you working with the epa
[49:08] you guys helped create this problem over the past 30 years and you just told the big corporation that
[49:13] they don't even have liability for it anymore he is dealing with a national security vulnerability
[49:18] where the chinese could shut off our food supply in a single day so that's a good situation mr mr
[49:24] chair mr chair i'm gonna i'm gonna turn i'm gonna yield my time but i'm just gonna say this you have
[49:29] now been changing your testimony over time about this you said earlier you were displeased with this
[49:36] you tried to talk the president out of it i did now and now you're just fully supportive of a huge
[49:41] corporation no liability thank you i sued that corporation got 11 billion dollars from him and it blew
[49:48] him on the edge of bankruptcy right and now you're just folding right in front of him thank you
[49:52] senator tuberville thank you mr chairman thank you mr secretary thank you very much is your microphone on
[50:00] pardon your microphone yeah it should be on is it on yeah my light's on is it working good uh thank you
[50:10] seven seven hearings in the last few weeks my god can we not let you can we one week can we not let
[50:16] you do your job i mean we don't do much up here so we might as well let you work but i i'd like to
[50:22] address something on the on the food prices i'm on the ag committee that's where this ought to be
[50:28] biden administration put 150 000 farms out of business when they were in when they were in uh in
[50:34] charge 150 000 we're not gonna have any damn food if we don't watch it and we better back our farmers
[50:40] and do everything we possibly can because that trash that we get out of brazil and asia that we're
[50:47] eating ain't maha i'll promise you that so thank you for what you're doing you're a hero in my state
[50:52] because the kids are starting to understand the food pyramid and you've pushed it and you made it
[50:59] work again i came from a a former business that tried to eat right with supplements and working out
[51:07] and all those but it has caught fire and thank you for what you're doing and continue to do what
[51:11] you're doing and uh we'll make progress in this one thing i want to ask you is i see where in our
[51:19] country we have 10 000 ingredients that we can use in food but in europe they only use four or 500 food
[51:25] ingredients could you explain that yeah and thank you for that coach and this is something again uh
[51:31] senator sanders has shown leadership on congress has talked about this many years i actually got it done
[51:38] it's the grass standards generally recognized as safe it's a loophole that was added in 1948 to the
[51:45] food drug and cosmetic act to exclude from the necessity of testing foods that were traditionally
[51:54] used like vinegar salts wheat etc the food industry because fda has been captured for 50 years hijacked
[52:02] that and put every new lab created monstrosity through so it doesn't have to be tested we have
[52:10] 10 000 ingredients in our country we don't fda doesn't even know what they are we have no list of
[52:16] them anywhere none of them have been adequately tested and um and they have 400 in europe and we're
[52:24] trying to show it close that loophole now so that and then go back and we've already have the 38 most
[52:32] worst of those chemicals under review and we're going to get rid of the bad ones one at a time
[52:38] thank you i i'm i'm going to say something about senator kane earlier talked about americare medicare
[52:44] medicaid you know in in my state uh it's going to be a lot like his state uh you know the wage index is
[52:51] killing us absolutely and we but we can only change it through congress you know it's been that way for 40
[52:57] years and we struggle to keep our hospitals open just simple fact that we're considered a low-wage
[53:02] state but don't you think things change in a 40-year period uh we've really grown uh it do you agree
[53:09] that congress needs to fix this they absolutely need to fix it you know sheldon white house was
[53:15] here the last hearing talking about people in his state doctors in his state get 20 percent less than
[53:23] a doctor right across the border in massachusetts or connecticut the rural areas are the areas that are
[53:28] suffering the worst i can't change it because the social security act and but but we need to change
[53:35] it or we're going to lose all these rural hospitals thank you and and food dyes petroleum-based synthetic
[53:41] food dyes thank you for what you're doing thank you and it's uh we just need to keep that momentum going
[53:47] it's it's so important there's no reason we should be using that those dyes in our food and i just say a
[53:54] few words about psychedelic treatments for ptsd thank you and president trump for what you're doing
[54:00] for veterans uh it's worked it's worked in our state and thank you for agreeing to look into it and and
[54:07] make it happen more and more could you say something about psychedelics well the chair of the um
[54:14] department of of johns hopkins that that ibogaine specifically is the most promising treatment
[54:22] or depression and ptsd that anybody's ever seen and right now veterans who have served this country
[54:34] who have come back from deployment with severe ptsd and who are killing themselves 23 a day
[54:42] they're having to go down to mexico to get this treatment we know we don't know much about doses
[54:48] we don't know much about screening we don't know much about the protocols we need to get this
[54:53] promising treatment here we need to do the proper studies and make it available to these vets and
[54:59] we're doing that right away thank you thank you mr chairman senator blount rochester thank you mr
[55:07] chairman the united states first became measles free over 25 years ago a quarter of a century we have
[55:16] maintained that status in every year since until you became secretary a simple yes or no does the
[55:25] president know there is a historic measles surge occurring nationwide you want me to answer the
[55:31] question it's just a very simple question grandstand you're going to get your opportunity you want a
[55:36] grandstand can you ask i can answer that question i didn't cause it started before i came in sir
[55:44] i'm giving you the opportunity to answer the question mr chairman can i get my time back from this
[55:51] this rudeness mr chairman i'm sorry i was asking can i get my time back from him interrupting yes
[56:01] a simple yes or no question does the president know there is a historic measles surge occurring
[56:08] nationwide i'm sure he does you're sure he does remarkably ralph abraham your former cdc
[56:16] principal deputy director said that losing our measles free status is not really significant
[56:23] and just the cost of doing business with our borders another simple yes or no does the president think
[56:32] this is not a significant issue losing our measles elimination status yes most of the countries are
[56:41] losing does he think it's a significant problem it's a good development that's happening all over the world
[56:48] have you talked to him about it about measles about the outbreaks about the crisis okay so yes or no
[56:57] he does know it's a problem yes according to the washington post the president makes public
[57:04] statements about his plans for the new golden ballroom at a pace that rivals and even exceeds the mentions
[57:10] of some major policy priorities he talks publicly about the ballroom one out of every three days
[57:17] and so i have a question do you know how many times the president has spoken about the measles epidemic
[57:25] i don't count that i don't we don't keep track of that data at the cdc yet so as head of our nation's
[57:32] head health agency have you advised the president to sound the alarm and encourage americans to obtain the
[57:40] measles vaccine am i going to get a question and a chance to answer this or you're just that was a
[57:47] question for you excuse me the question was have you alerted the president to sound the alarm you're
[57:53] the head of hhs the leading health agency in our country that's my job and we do it so yes or no
[58:01] it's my job not the president's job and i do my job i'm i'm concerned about it i've watched a lot of
[58:07] these hearings you blame the mennonite mennonites you blame immigrants you blame the globe we've been part
[58:14] of the globe and still we are in this situation do you take any responsibility in your role for
[58:25] the situation that we are in with this measles epidemic as i said the measles epidemic began
[58:31] before i came into office the people i'm going to take that as a no the pan-american health
[58:36] organization was scheduled to review our measles-free status on april 13th did your department request
[58:42] to delay this independent international review of our measles elimination status to november after
[58:47] the election no so you did not request it you had no knowledge of the request you had no communication
[58:55] with the white house thank you it's it's awfully convenient that we're postponing it until after
[59:02] november when people won't have the opportunity to know our measles status i would just say this um
[59:08] there has been a lot in terms of polling on trust you've talked a lot about trust the people
[59:15] don't trust you and i would uh ask what is different from all these other years you are if the
[59:25] american people don't trust you which most of the polls show i don't know why the president should
[59:31] trust you either i yield back senator murkowski chairman thank you secretary welcome back to the
[59:41] committee um you and i have had many opportunities to talk about uh ihs funding and i appreciate uh your
[59:49] trip to to alaska last year very targeted on what we are doing with regards to health care for um alaska
[59:57] natives as well as american indians native hawaiians um so i appreciate uh what we're seeing with the
[1:00:03] advanced appropriations for ihs in in the budget uh this really helps with uh providing certainty to our
[1:00:11] tribal health systems so um that's a good another good is the billion dollar increase including critical
[1:00:19] investments in ihs health i.t and the hospital oversight so good there uh where where i do have
[1:00:25] concerns is the reduction that we're seeing in the sanitation facilities construction account this is
[1:00:32] an 87 percent uh cut and you have had an opportunity on your visits to alaska to see what it means when you
[1:00:41] have communities that don't have uh running water that don't have clean drinking water that don't have
[1:00:47] um sanitation facilities and are using honey buckets so i we've made some good headway under the
[1:00:54] infrastructure uh law but that was intended to supplement not supplant our annual appropriations
[1:01:01] so i just want to make sure that uh your you are committing on behalf of your folks within ihs to
[1:01:10] to to maintain a key um a key um a key eye on funding for tribal sanitation facilities construction we're
[1:01:20] going to work i'm certainly going to work on on my side on the appropriations committee but also as
[1:01:24] chairman of the indian affairs to make sure that we don't go backwards on on these important investments
[1:01:32] in in basic sanitation for people in remote areas absolutely if them if that you know we had to get cuts
[1:01:39] across the department ihs was protected from those cuts they received a billion dollars for
[1:01:46] infrastructure nobody else i don't know across the government has received that except maybe the
[1:01:51] defense department i've made more visits to indian country than any hhs secretary in history
[1:01:58] and uh if you know we don't like to make any of these cuts it's up to congress ultimately if you
[1:02:05] appropriate the money i of course will spend it well and know that we want to work with you to make
[1:02:10] wise investments but again when we think about those areas where we see just really dispiriting um
[1:02:19] health outcomes in in rural areas so much of it can be traced back to they don't have access to basic
[1:02:26] clean water and sanitation so we want to work with you on that uh last year i had a chance to raise with
[1:02:32] you uh the lie heat program the low income home energy assistance program uh we have had a pretty
[1:02:38] tough winter i was in fairbanks over the weekend and i was reminded that they had 152 consecutive days
[1:02:45] of temperatures below zero 152 is a long time to be cold and so this is where i look at lie heap and
[1:02:55] it's not just kind of a nice to have but for so many it was it was very imperative so i'm worried
[1:03:01] again that um that lie heap funding is not made a priority last april uh you eliminated all staff
[1:03:09] assigned to administer lie heap um it's my understanding now that responsibility for
[1:03:14] administering the entire program rests with a single staff member i really hope that that is not accurate
[1:03:21] but uh we need to know that not only uh these levels of important support are going to continue
[1:03:28] um but that there is adequate staffing to help uh address this and i think particularly it's not
[1:03:35] just cold winters that we faced but but now all of our families are seeing increased prices when it comes
[1:03:41] to to home heating fuel uh so many of our communities are diesel powered communities and the the price of
[1:03:49] diesel is going to be shockingly high when that first spring barge comes in in june so i'm just asking for
[1:03:55] your your help once again i i know you understand the priority of lie heap but i'm putting it back on
[1:03:59] your radar and i spent all 90 percent the money that i could spend we've now gotten the last 10 percent
[1:04:08] released and we will spend that so we have adequate staffing to do that and you know how i feel about
[1:04:14] that program well again i'm just putting it back on your radar uh i've got 20 seconds to to just raise my
[1:04:21] concerns about um the the programs focused on domestic violence and sexual assault program you
[1:04:29] have um combined into a single program under the administration for healthy america this is the delta
[1:04:35] program and the rpe the rape prevention and education i'm concerned that uh the programs aren't
[1:04:42] interchangeable they serve distinct populations different models administered through fundamentally
[1:04:47] different structures but i'm i'm concerned that we're looking at nearly half the funding for
[1:04:52] programs that have a really proven record of improving public safety reducing crime and preventing
[1:04:57] protecting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault so again i know it's a priority of yours
[1:05:03] certainly a priority of mine that we have effective tools when we're talking about prevention of
[1:05:08] domestic and sexual violence thank you senator thank you thank you mr chairman yes and and just speaking as a
[1:05:15] doctor just to close the conversation thank you for giving guyer's name i've looked up the article the
[1:05:22] quote is thus vaccination does not account for the impressive declines in mortality seen in the first
[1:05:27] half of last century the reductions in vaccine preventable diseases however are impressive
[1:05:33] now condensed in the early 1920s there are about 500 about a half a million annual cases before the
[1:05:40] introduction of vaccine of the measles vaccine in the 60s because of vaccines these deaths
[1:05:45] have been virtually eliminated so that's the complete content i was talking about mortality senator
[1:05:51] that's what they're saying the deaths have been virtually eliminated okay um senator baldwin
[1:05:57] thank you mr chairman and thank you mr secretary for being here to answer our questions in your marathon
[1:06:05] hearing schedule here um mr secretary uh premiums for working families who purchase their health insurance
[1:06:13] through the affordable care act marketplaces have in many cases doubled tripled even quadrupled this year
[1:06:20] because the administration and republicans in congress refused to extend enhanced premium tax credits
[1:06:29] with the higher costs people are literally choosing between rent groceries gas and their health insurance
[1:06:37] um and please if you don't know the answer please feel free to say this but i'm wondering how closely
[1:06:44] you're watching this secretary kennedy the tax cut expired in december do you know how many americans have
[1:06:51] lost their health insurance through the affordable care act marketplace this year i know that 87
[1:06:59] percent of the the advanced tax credits are still there so 87 of the people who are on obamacare are still
[1:07:08] getting their insurance for under 96 a year 54 percent do you know how many people have lost their health
[1:07:16] insurance as a consequence it would be the top 13 then okay the answer is 1.3 million and i wouldn't
[1:07:24] expect you to know wisconsin figures but uh it's 22 000 in the state of wisconsin and uh another 2 million
[1:07:33] were forced to buy plans with higher deductibles to stay insured um which may cost them more money in out of
[1:07:41] pocket costs uh in the long run um do you know what percentage of individuals were unable to pay their
[1:07:53] health insurance premiums on the affordable care act um marketplace in the month of january after the
[1:08:01] enhanced premium tax credits expired no i mean i know that the democrats uh when they control so you
[1:08:09] don't know i i'll just i'll just uh furnish that information according to uh wall street journal
[1:08:15] reporting they indicated that about 14 percent of enrollees which is a significant increase from past years
[1:08:23] um uh lost their uh or were not were unable to pay their january health insurance premiums
[1:08:31] in some states um it was up to a quarter of all enrollees a shocking figure um do you know how much
[1:08:40] overall enrollment is expected to decline no i know that the last time we looked at it
[1:08:50] it was flat except for the 1.5 million people who were um who were cheating oh 1.5 million who were
[1:09:04] committing fraud if you deduct that number the enrollment was flat i don't know how it will be
[1:09:09] right i'm talking about the affordable care act uh marketplace uh participation overall enrollment is
[1:09:15] expected to decline by up to 26 percent um and and this is likely going to be in part healthier enrollees
[1:09:26] who choose not to pay um raising the likelihood uh that because sicker or unhealthier enrollees will
[1:09:37] continue to figure out a way to keep their insurance that there'll be even higher premiums for
[1:09:42] individuals who need uh coverage um your department has also proposed significant changes to the
[1:09:52] the affordable care act plans for 2027 which would increase out-of-pocket costs and introduce more junk
[1:10:01] insurance and raise deductibles for working families the rule also adds millions of hours in red tape
[1:10:10] paperwork to the enrollment process do you know how many americans your department estimates
[1:10:17] would lose their health coverage under your proposed rule i think it's um you know under under
[1:10:28] the aca room yeah um i can't tell you the exact number it's two million uh americans mr secretary
[1:10:36] that's why it's important to do low premium plans that give people
[1:10:41] or some kind of access to better health insurance at lower costs so two million that would lose their
[1:10:50] health insurance due to the uh rules that you're proposing and that would be on top of the 15 million
[1:10:56] americans projected to lose coverage thanks to the uh provisions in the big ugly bill and the combination
[1:11:05] of that with the ending of the enhanced premium tax credits now yesterday uh uh in our um labor h subcommittee
[1:11:16] hearing uh secretary can i will submit these uh for the i in in association with the question that i
[1:11:25] could not answer i did want to have a submission for the record i would ask unanimous consent and then i will
[1:11:31] uh include a reference to those two documents in my question that i submit for the record thank you
[1:11:45] secretary thank you so much for taking time to be here we appreciate it um and thank you chairman
[1:11:51] cassidy for for holding this hearing this afternoon i i think it's great that you're sure better i think
[1:11:59] it's great that you're here and taking on the tough questions and showing the american people how you're
[1:12:04] thinking outside the box and bucking up against the status quo to try and change the really tragic and
[1:12:10] sad trajectory we're on in terms of health in this country um takes a lot of guts to do that and we
[1:12:16] appreciate it and i think talking about where you're wanting to put resources is always a good
[1:12:20] thing so thank you very much i think the most important thing uh that you are doing is is putting
[1:12:26] in the work rolling up your sleeves and trying to to reverse course on some of the horrible statistics that
[1:12:32] quite frankly american is paying attention to more now than they ever have and i think that has a lot to
[1:12:38] do with you at the helm um thirty percent of our population is obese we rank highest overall in
[1:12:44] cancer burden and we're seeing cancer rates skyrocketing especially among our youth we have over half a
[1:12:50] million cases of people with alzheimer's that's expected go up to a million in the next few years
[1:12:59] in my state and certainly across the country we suffer severely people suffer severely from the
[1:13:05] oppression of chronic disease and no one really wanted to look at the root cause of that critically
[1:13:12] within government until you started talking about it you you took the helm and started fostering allowing
[1:13:21] promoting scientific debate true debate and that's important in this country i think during the covid
[1:13:31] years that became very apparent uh you said it best in your testimony nutrition is the bedrock of health
[1:13:40] as a mom that truly wants to make america healthy again i couldn't agree more and i'm glad that we're
[1:13:47] having these hearings and i wasn't surprised when you chose miami florida as the place where you announced
[1:13:53] that you were going to engage hospitals and require that they actually serve nutritious food i will never
[1:13:59] forget the time i was in the hospital with one of my parents and they came in and i was asking what
[1:14:07] they should eat what they shouldn't eat of the doctor and they looked at the the plate of food and
[1:14:11] they're like none of this none of this and that's exactly why we were in the hospital i thought that was
[1:14:16] very strange but so many floridians end up in the hospital because they've had a lifelong diet of ultra
[1:14:22] processed polluted food and so how can we hope to heal people in a medical setting when the food we're
[1:14:28] serving them is nutrient deficient infused with microplastics pump full of added sugar artificial
[1:14:34] dyes we know that so much of this can contribute to weakening the immune system can contribute to
[1:14:41] cancer so many of our schools aren't even serving food that meets the highest standard certainly what
[1:14:47] you would call i guess the maha standards anywhere between 30 and 60 percent of a child's nutrition comes
[1:14:54] from school meals so we have to address that we all want our children eating healthy nutritious meals
[1:15:00] and certainly for their long-term lifetime help that's going to be important prior to your swearing
[1:15:07] in the overwhelming majority of medical students received no nutrition education none that's insane
[1:15:15] that is insane when you're looking at these this chronic disease and the rates that we're facing
[1:15:21] less than one percent of lecture hours in medical schools were dedicated to this fundamental part
[1:15:26] of health just last month you secured historic agreements with well over 50 of the top medical
[1:15:31] schools in america to require comprehensive nutrition education giving our future health care
[1:15:36] providers the tools necessary to attack chronic disease at the most fundamental level i'm so proud
[1:15:42] six florida schools were part of this agreement and they are very excited that hhs has invested five
[1:15:47] million dollars to support the integration of this curriculum so all in all before you came along
[1:15:55] along and and thought to do these things and pushed for these things we expected to keep working within
[1:16:01] the status quo and expecting our chronic disease rates to change so thank goodness you came along florida
[1:16:13] wants to be ground zero for the fight for nutrition i know our moms want that i'm part of that caucus
[1:16:20] and you and your team have grabbed the bull by the horns you've partners with industry you're standing strong
[1:16:24] for our kids and for americans how transformative do you think that hhs's new nutrition guidelines combined
[1:16:33] with new nutrition education requirements for medical students will be for america you know 80
[1:16:39] percent of young doctors today say that they feel um inadequate to offer nutritional advice and you have
[1:16:52] most of our 80 percent of our our 90 percent of our health care costs are chronic disease that are
[1:16:58] diet induced oh upwards of 70 percent of type 2 diabetes can be cured just by changing diet or vastly
[1:17:08] improved and a doctor should know that that there's other things other than the pharmacopoeia to turn to
[1:17:15] you can have dietary changes and lifestyle changes that save your life without getting addicted to a
[1:17:21] lifetime of pharmaceutical interventions i see that i have blown past my time so thank you very much
[1:17:27] secretary the information of senators will take a short break at 3 30 at that point i'll ask our
[1:17:36] guests in the audience to remain seated until the secretary steps out but that'll be at the bottom of the
[1:17:40] hour and with that senator murray well thank you very much mr chairman and secretary kennedy i uh you were
[1:17:47] before appropriations yesterday and i asked you about the insanely bloated military budget that we are seeing
[1:17:52] from the white house this year at the same time the president isn't doing anything to invest in our
[1:17:58] health care here at home and now we have learned he's not not even investing in our troops health
[1:18:04] secretary hagseth announced that the u.s military will no longer require american troops to get the flu
[1:18:10] vaccine my own colleague senator wicker called it a mistake and pointed to his own experience noting quote
[1:18:18] i dutifully took my flu shot every year as a whole it made for a healthier and flu free force secretary
[1:18:26] kennedy is cdc or any agency at hhs ready and able to detect or monitor localized flu outbreaks in our
[1:18:35] military as a result of this new what i think is a backwards policy secretary haggs was just recognizing
[1:18:42] that these soldiers being sent over to fight for our freedoms and that they should have some freedom too
[1:18:47] the flu shot is an intervention that is often ineffective has a 20 efficacy rates there are
[1:18:56] studies that show that getting a flu shot actually increases the chance of a non-flu infection
[1:19:05] a soldier you and i may differ on that but my question to you wasn't about that my question to you
[1:19:10] is hhs or cdc either one now going to monitor any flu outbreaks on our military ships or i don't know if
[1:19:20] there is any program specifically for the military but we definitely monitor flu outbreaks well this was
[1:19:28] a very old policy it wasn't based in science it was bait it was basically is improving the food
[1:19:35] all of the military secretary if i can finish the 1918 pandemic actually sickened 40 of our service
[1:19:42] members and killed 20 000 soldiers if you have a submarine full of people who we are counting on
[1:19:49] and a virus goes flying through it we don't have a ready military comparing the spanish flu i am i am
[1:19:57] just stating that if you have our military have a pandemic or flu or anything fly through them
[1:20:05] they are not ready so my question to you was not about that mr secretary it is my time i'm asking you
[1:20:13] simply and you you didn't answer me whether or not we were going to monitor that to make sure that we do
[1:20:18] have a troop ready uh troops ready in these very critical times but let me go on here because i just
[1:20:24] have a few minutes left um yesterday when we talked you went on a very long tangent about how you were just
[1:20:31] cancelling woke grants but i i want to for the record put the numbers here you cancelled 17 at least 17
[1:20:39] maternal health grants 4 million dollars because apparently any research research involving women
[1:20:44] is woke you cancelled 58 grants for vaccine research 94 million dollars a 59 for alzheimer's research that
[1:20:53] was 33 million dollars and a whopping 108 cancer research grants 29 million dollars worth i i just have
[1:21:02] to say cancer is not woke neither is alzheimer's or women's women who die in childbirth these these are
[1:21:08] deadly issues they deserve serious research um i am appalled that it was tossed in the shredder
[1:21:15] and meanwhile as i said we're shoveling money uh on war spending so i just want to be clear
[1:21:21] that the budget that was sent to us is not a maga budget it's not a maha budget it is a war budget
[1:21:26] no one can call it anything other than that why on earth would we take from researchers in rural health care
[1:21:32] maternal maternal health care um you justified these cuts because of a need to reduce the debt
[1:21:38] yesterday this budget actually proposes to increase the debt for more war so we're shoveling more money
[1:21:46] at defense contractors but we're slashing nih by more than five billion dollars fewer patients getting
[1:21:54] life-saving treatment cutting cdc by a third so we can't respond to dangerous outbreaks slashing investments
[1:22:01] in mental health and addiction treatment people will fall through the cat cracks and not investing
[1:22:07] in child care families will have to decide between child care and health care and putting food on the
[1:22:12] table so i know my time's almost up and um and mr chairman for the record um i am concerned about
[1:22:18] the promises that have been broken and i have some items that i do want to uh submit for the record i
[1:22:24] ask unanimous consent to uh include these articles rfk junior breaks promise to senators guts cdc vaccine
[1:22:32] panel of independent expense experts rfk junior breaks his promise about the cdc on vaccines and autism
[1:22:42] firing of cdc's vaccine advisors put spotlight on rfk juniors promises to cassidy i have one that is
[1:22:48] titled rfk junior made promises in order to become a health secretary he has broken many of them
[1:22:54] uh cassidy after whoops bill cast bill cassidy extracted a promise from rfk junior now he sees
[1:23:01] what that promise is worth uh two more republican senator who voted for rfk is airing his concerns
[1:23:07] too late now and an article that is entitled gop senator refuses to face reality about rfk junior
[1:23:14] after being lied to i yield that without objection they're submitted thank you mr armstrong good over
[1:23:24] here good afternoon uh thank you for being here and you know i'm i'm a very new guy so i'm i'm somewhat
[1:23:30] naive about this process so i actually have questions about the future and what we can do on a forward
[1:23:37] looking basis to improve things um and i want to first of all just say thanks for the bold vision
[1:23:44] i come from business and i know it takes a lot of energy and conviction to actually bring change
[1:23:50] especially in an organization like a big federal government so i just want to tell you thanks
[1:23:54] for your commitment to bringing very significant reforms and a bold vision for the future i also
[1:24:00] want to say thanks being from oklahoma i want to say thanks and and to remind you how very important it
[1:24:05] is to make sure that we're not forgetting about the rural areas and the tribal areas that so desperately
[1:24:10] need to be thought about when we think about health in our country but my question um really goes to
[1:24:17] um thinking about drug approval and ai it's very obvious to me that uh ai is going to speed up the
[1:24:27] ability to develop more and more solutions whether it's drugs but things that the fda is going to need to
[1:24:34] approve and i noticed that you had the two million dollars in the budget for ai but i'm wondering about
[1:24:40] um what you think in the future uh can be done within the department to really accelerate the
[1:24:47] ability to approve and work in parallel with the drug development thank senator thank you for that
[1:24:55] question uh we've done more i think than any agency got in government maybe with the uh exception of the cia
[1:25:03] and the intelligence department to drive ai into all of our functions at fda today we have a voluntary
[1:25:10] program called elzon 90 of the people are using it and we've used it to dramatically shorten the approval
[1:25:20] time for drugs from of the review of the final application normally takes 60 days we've compressed that
[1:25:30] now to about two hours and as a result of that we just approved two cancer drugs one in 54 days and one
[1:25:38] in 45 days ai is going to revolutionize medicine and it may at some day at some point make fda even
[1:25:47] irrelevant um and it's going to give us the capacity to develop new drugs personalized medicine for every
[1:25:55] country citizen you know i just was reading about a a um a dog that had cancer and his owner used ai to
[1:26:06] develop a personalized treatment that cured the cancer we're going to see that now in medicine across
[1:26:12] medicine and we're very excited about it ai is very dangerous potentially but also has the capacity to
[1:26:20] bring really great things to humanity particularly in the realm of human health great thank you very much
[1:26:27] next question i had was around i noticed that you're uh consolidating for the big departments
[1:26:34] there and curious about what you're how you think things will operate in the future and the advantages
[1:26:40] of some of the consolidations that you're looking to do we're reorganizing i mean we are we've been
[1:26:47] working for a year to figure out a um a sensible way to reorganize the department and i'm just going to
[1:26:57] give you an example of what we had um what we what we had when i came in we had nine separate offices for
[1:27:07] women's health eight separate offices for minority health 27 separate hiv programs 59 behavioral health
[1:27:15] programs 40 separate opioid programs 42 maternal health programs 41 chief information officers 100
[1:27:24] communications offices 40 procurement departments and dozens of i.t departments none of them talking
[1:27:31] to each other and so there was it was a target rich environment for reorganization to streamline the
[1:27:38] agency and make it more efficient we've developed proposals for doing just that and those proposals we
[1:27:46] are not going to do unilaterally you're going to submit them to congress and hopefully congress will agree
[1:27:52] that's a sensible way to reorganize great well thank you very much for the the courage and the energy
[1:27:58] that it takes to take on all that so very appreciative and i yield my time we will now recess for a short
[1:28:04] break again i ask the audience to remain seated while the secretary departs i imagine this will take
[1:28:09] about five minutes the committee stands in brief recess the committee will please come to order uh senator
[1:28:21] hickenlooper thank you um and i want to uh mr chair i'd like to ask you in unanimous consent to enter into
[1:28:30] the record a letter signed by 155 pediatricians in colorado from all parts of the state expressing their
[1:28:37] grave concerns about the vaccine hesitancy um and the implications that has on future health of colorado
[1:28:44] kids without objection so uh secretary kennedy um measles cases are increasing um i know that it's been
[1:28:55] raised many times we've seen eight in colorado this year 18 times the number of these measles cases that
[1:29:01] we used to see um all but one this year were unvaccinated uh individuals and that one only got one shot
[1:29:10] instead of the two uh between february and march of this year state and local public health officials
[1:29:15] uh in colorado spent nearly half a million dollars to respond to 10 measles cases uh impacting two
[1:29:22] schools in broomfield um i thought i'd just go through that in adams county uh responding to an
[1:29:28] outmase an outbreak of only five cases required approximately 40 caseworkers and contact tracers
[1:29:34] working 14 hours a day because there's a huge sense of urgency here seven days a week for more than
[1:29:39] two weeks the workers had to contact more than 600 people that may have been exposed and
[1:29:44] and and and these contact workers interviewed 284 people by phone uh public health workers had to
[1:29:51] access every single contact for immunization status they had to ask had you been vaccinated uh and they
[1:29:57] needed to those who hadn't been vaccinated needed to be quarantined for 21 days at additional expense
[1:30:03] i'm not including here uh they had to prioritize obviously for uh infants under one uh you look at the
[1:30:09] outbreaks that we're seeing in 2025 we had 48 outbreaks across 45 states 2026 we had 19 outbreaks
[1:30:16] across uh 33 states um i think this work uh the contact tracing uh keeping people isolated it's very
[1:30:26] onerous to local governments um and president trump's cuts to public health funding and health care coverage
[1:30:33] and research mean that there isn't really there isn't any money left um so i i think that we have to
[1:30:40] ask where is the money going to come from to clean up all the all that cost to local government um as a
[1:30:47] former mayor that's something that that concerns me um the healthcare system overall has has seen a about
[1:30:55] roughly a trillion dollars in cuts um just the the budget next year shows further cuts um so how do you
[1:31:03] suggest us that the local governments and state governments you know build build back and find those
[1:31:10] resources senator we've lost i think three americans to measles in 20 years we lose two million people
[1:31:21] americans to chronic disease every year do you know what the cost of that is 4.3 trillion dollars a
[1:31:28] year i totally get it right i think you need two things at once so i'm not sure that's those are
[1:31:33] mutually of course we need to do two things at once but we also need to do kind of adequate risk
[1:31:40] assessments the the big enemy of our country is chronic disease killing three million of us a year
[1:31:46] it's bankrupting i'm not i'm not i don't i am on your side on that i agree that health care that a
[1:31:53] healthy diet and and and taking charge of our own health early on is is the best pharmaceutical we've
[1:31:59] got i agree with all that this is separate from that and a separate uh subset um i'm also partial to
[1:32:07] uh mrna um vaccines especially um the recently i'm sure you've seen the news that there's it's a
[1:32:16] promising pathway for people with or patients with pancreatic cancer uh as you know pancreatic cancer
[1:32:23] is one of the great killers one of the deadliest forms of cancer um less than 13 percent of the
[1:32:29] patients with pancreatic cancer lasts over five years uh the patients in this trial trial with mrna
[1:32:36] are still alive six years later right so it you know less than 13 percent survive beyond five years in
[1:32:42] this trial they're all alive after six years later this is exciting for the scientific research committee
[1:32:48] community uh and the promise of rna research but we still feel hostility to mrna technology and the and
[1:32:57] the research uh the termination of 22 projects with 500 million dollars that had focused on mrna um in
[1:33:04] your announcement of counseling the projects you quoted that hhs would shift towards safer broader vaccine
[1:33:11] platforms but again when you're looking at cancer and canceling projects that are so promising for
[1:33:17] these certain types of cancer are you aren't you worried about throwing the baby out with the bath
[1:33:22] water uh senator i've authorized 500 million dollars now for cancer vaccines oh and i think mrna is a
[1:33:31] promising technology for cancer vaccines i terminated the covet vaccines because they didn't make any sense
[1:33:39] covid is gone and the mrna vaccines have a limited efficacy against respiratory illnesses
[1:33:48] and if they had a good efficacy the industry would pay for them they made a hundred billion dollars on
[1:33:54] the covet vaccine why are we paying for vaccines that they don't believe are going to work because
[1:34:01] we know they're not going to work with mrna technology is very very promising in certain areas like
[1:34:07] pancreatic i think that i guess i want to make sure we continue to do the research we are doing
[1:34:13] the iron the steel gavel is cutting me off but i want to make sure that we focus on some of that
[1:34:17] basic research that leads to those breakthroughs and things like rna vaccines thanks thank you mr
[1:34:25] chairman mr secretary good to see you again welcome i want to start by just saying how much i appreciate
[1:34:30] your efforts to get big pharma back on a leash under control particularly your efforts to stop
[1:34:35] direct to consumer advertising i mean there's just no reason the big pharma in particular should be
[1:34:39] getting federal subsidies to do this kind of advertising which is frequently misleading bad
[1:34:44] for consumers so you and the fda have been leading on this i appreciate that thank you for that let me
[1:34:49] ask you about something that i'm concerned about the department recently elected to allow title 10 grants
[1:34:55] to flow to abortion providers for another year let me let me just give you let me contextualize this
[1:35:01] and give you an example from my state as to why this concerns me you're going to see i think over my shoulder
[1:35:06] here a poster from an actual provider abortion provider in the state of missouri this is an entity
[1:35:15] called beacon health reproductive network they just received about eight million dollars from a title
[1:35:20] 10 grant now beacon health as you can see here they do more than just refer for abortions they also
[1:35:26] proclaim their support for all bodies they provide gender affirming care including to young people
[1:35:32] that's gender transition surgeries these folks now who by the way went to my state legislature and tried
[1:35:39] to prevent the legislature from writing in the difference between male and female defining that
[1:35:44] in state law they opposed our ban in the state of missouri on transgender surgeries for minors so that's
[1:35:50] the kind of folks here they're getting now eight million dollars in taxpayer funding from the title 10 program
[1:35:58] because of the department's decision when can you can you tell me when are we going to stop funding
[1:36:04] people like this i don't think that this kind of entity ought to be getting federal tax money i agree with
[1:36:09] you senator and um you know we pause those grants these are five-year grants we pause them there's a year
[1:36:18] left on them and we looked at the litigation risk and ogc advised us that it was very very high and so
[1:36:28] we're paying them out the last year we're monitoring for high amendment compliance we've just
[1:36:36] released nofo's today i think that are very aligned with your thinking and i think you'll be very
[1:36:41] happy with what about the protect life rule mr secretary writing that back into regulations that would
[1:36:49] prevent any going forward any federal tax dollars from flowing to an abortion provider or a report an
[1:36:56] abortion uh referrer i mean where are you are you still pursuing that you mean outside of the height
[1:37:01] amendment's reach yes yeah but for instance i'm happy to work with you on that okay good i think
[1:37:07] that's important i think that we should not be funding entities like this and uh you know personally
[1:37:12] i think a litigation risk i'd rather take the risk in litigation than subject children in my state
[1:37:17] to transgender care funded by federal taxpayer dollars so i appreciate you working on this i think if you look
[1:37:24] at the new nofos you'll be very happy good um on a different subject there are currently in the state
[1:37:30] of missouri something like 60 data centers we have many many more that want to come into the state i
[1:37:36] think there are 4 000 data centers currently being built in the united states over 3 000 are already
[1:37:42] in operation when i go home now i get asked all the time by people who are big maha people i get asked
[1:37:49] constantly about the health risks around these data centers and i honestly don't know what to tell them
[1:37:53] because i don't know what the science is but i just want to rehearse this for you i'm going to
[1:37:56] show you a picture of a data center this is in north kansas city i mean these are these are massive
[1:38:01] this is going to consume i think it's 700 megawatts of power that's that's enough for 300 000 homes in
[1:38:08] one year but i get asked constantly things about electromagnetic fields you know this is like
[1:38:14] having these data centers like having multiple high voltage transformers all located in one place
[1:38:19] it is that an increased cancer risk i have people in my state who worry that it is who are now living
[1:38:24] next to these data centers they worry about decibel levels causing things like headaches migraines
[1:38:29] vertigo other neurological disorders my question to you is is this something that hhs will study to
[1:38:36] look at the the potential health effects here so we can get a handle on on what is what is a health
[1:38:41] risk what's really not a health risk so that we know what we're dealing with when we're talking about
[1:38:46] thousands and thousands and thousands of these being built not just in my state all over the
[1:38:50] country uh yes sir and i just want to say that i've litigated on this issue we produced uh over 10
[1:38:59] 000 studies over the court of appeals and i won the case to get fdc to redo its regulations on on uh emfs
[1:39:09] and you're right there's a range of injuries that are very very well documented they're neurological very
[1:39:15] very grave neurological injuries cancer risk um and then just the making the blood-brain barrier
[1:39:23] permeable so more toxins can get into the brain it the the risks to me are uh are horrendous and
[1:39:32] um but we are uh i've asked both arpa and the surgeon general's office to either do meta reviews or
[1:39:41] to do uh base studies on this issue so that we can better inform the american public good thank you
[1:39:48] very much thank you mr chairman senator kim thank you chairman uh secretary kennedy thanks for coming
[1:39:55] out here today i i just wanted to start by asking are you familiar with the limb loss resource center
[1:40:02] limb loss limb loss resource center are you familiar with this remind me what it is
[1:40:07] uh so this is uh really important it's the only federally funded resource center dedicated to
[1:40:14] providing reliable information support and assistance to individuals with limb loss as well as limb difference
[1:40:21] this is you it doesn't ring a bell no with individuals with limb loss oh limb loss okay yeah have you
[1:40:30] heard of this before no i have not i i just raised this with you because you are proposing to eliminate it
[1:40:37] and i wanted to ask you why well i'm happy to talk to you about it you know we've been asked to make
[1:40:46] cuts across the department of 12 percent and uh you know nobody i don't think russ vote wants to cut
[1:40:54] our department nobody in our department wants to cut it we have a 39 trillion dollar debt and um and it
[1:41:02] may be i just i just maybe there was a conclusion that these were duplicative services i don't know i'm
[1:41:08] happy to talk to you in your office look here's what i'll raise is you know i learned i heard from
[1:41:12] a disability leader who used this center for resources when they needed help you know this
[1:41:19] budget that you're proposing zeros out the dedicated funding for this i also heard from a constituent
[1:41:25] darren whose wife slipped while exiting a stair lift becoming paralyzed they relied on support from
[1:41:32] something called the paralysis resource center which is also being eliminated under this budget that you're
[1:41:38] proposing and i'll just read through so the paralysis resource center limb loss resource center voting
[1:41:45] access for people with disabilities university centers for excellent with excellence in developmental
[1:41:52] disabilities the developmental disabilities projects of national significance five projects
[1:41:57] there that right now are slated for elimination of dedicated funding can you tell me what these programs
[1:42:03] have in common uh it sounds like there are programs that treat disabilities yes right and i just i worry about
[1:42:11] that immensely because right now more than ever i mean these families that i'm talking to you know they
[1:42:17] are struggling so much i mean i i i cannot imagine you know what some of them are going through and when
[1:42:23] they're seeing that level of focus on cutting these resources dedicated for them and i get it you know you're
[1:42:30] you're there there's efforts to try to see if they can boost up some state-level funding but the dedicated
[1:42:35] funding for these programs is very much on the chopping block and i guess i just wanted to ask you will you
[1:42:42] consider would you reconsider uh funding for these programs i'm happy to talk to your office about that the other
[1:42:50] thing i wanted to ask you because it raises you know again these are all programs that are focused on disability and it worries me that there's not a prioritization of supporting the disability community and americans with
[1:43:01] disability meanwhile there is conversation there are talks and proposals by this administration to move
[1:43:10] idea from department of education to your department of health and human services and we've heard that heard
[1:43:17] that from the secretary of education and others i think that you know i'm hearing from a lot of families
[1:43:23] that are very concerned profoundly concerned about this kind of shift so i wanted to ask you
[1:43:29] will you oppose the idea and proposal of this move of idea from the department of ed to health and human
[1:43:36] services i will not we're making look i'm very committed to serving the disability i'm not sure you are
[1:43:42] because of what i just played out here i mean the the dedicated you're talking about certain programs
[1:43:48] we're putting enormous resources into disabilities throughout the agency my uncle wrote the americans disability act
[1:43:55] my cousin teddy uh is is missing a limb um these are issues that i'm that i'm offering to talk to you
[1:44:03] about we will follow up on we have a 2.3 trillion dollar agency i don't know you know every cut there's
[1:44:11] some that we've made mistakes on and but i and i would tell you this we are well i'm happy to talk to your
[1:44:21] office about it we'll follow back up but i'll just leave you with this and this is what i heard from these
[1:44:26] families and i wanted to share it with you they say that if you are moving idea from the department
[1:44:31] of ed to health and human ser to health and human services you are defining these young students
[1:44:36] by their disability engaging them as patients rather than as students who have the right as anybody else
[1:44:42] does for opportunity so i just want to point that out please do not single out uh these students and
[1:44:49] and these families with disabilities mr chair just before i finish here i just want to ask unanimous
[1:44:54] consent to submit to the record a press release from the new jersey department of banking and
[1:44:59] insurance entitled quote cost increases from washington's inaction drives nearly 70 000 new
[1:45:05] jerseans to drop health coverage since january without objection thank you with that i yield back
[1:45:11] senator banks thank you mr chairman secretary kennedy i think someone in the media told me this is your
[1:45:17] seventh appearance before a committee testifying i can't think of a any other cabinet secretary in the
[1:45:23] trump trump cabinet who has been as transparent as you have been and i appreciate you being here today
[1:45:30] i appreciate your service there's not a day that goes by when i don't hear from a hoosier
[1:45:34] mom who tells me to tell you thank you for your leadership thank you and what you're doing and
[1:45:40] my wife is in the audience she's right behind you she she wants me to tell you thank you as well
[1:45:45] uh what what you do for families all over this country but especially in indiana what what message do you
[1:45:50] have as we wind down this committee hearing for families that are counting on you and this team
[1:45:56] to make america healthier again i you know we spend people have been talking about measles all day long
[1:46:05] but we spend when my uncle was president we spent zero on chronic disease in this country
[1:46:11] now we spend 4.3 trillion dollars just in my agency the military social security spend more
[1:46:18] altogether 48 cents out of every tax dollar paid to the federal government is going to health care
[1:46:24] 90 percent of that is going to chronic disease this is an existential issue we have the highest chronic
[1:46:30] disease burden of any country in the world 77 of american kids cannot qualify for military service
[1:46:38] oh it's a national defense issue as well diabetes rate juvenile diabetes have gone from
[1:46:44] essentially zero among children to 38 of our teens are diabetic or pre-diabetic autism rates have gone
[1:46:53] from one in 10 000 in 1970 to one in every 31 today and we need to do something to protect our children
[1:47:01] this has got to be our top priority and infectious disease is important and one of my jobs is to make sure
[1:47:09] to stem the outbreaks which i have done with measles better than any country in the world
[1:47:15] we also can't just talk about that in exclusion to the thing that's really killing our country
[1:47:23] which is poor health during covet we had the highest death rate of any country on earth the highest so we
[1:47:31] did worse with covet than any nation in the world we had a death rate of 3 000 per million population there
[1:47:38] are other countries that had 14 deaths per million population from covet and when you ask cdc why did
[1:47:45] all these people die from covet americans more than anybody else they say it's because our chronic disease
[1:47:52] epidemic the average american who died at 3.8 chronic diseases this was not an infectious disease that
[1:48:00] was killing healthy people it was killing sick people so the connection between chronic disease
[1:48:07] disease and uh infectious disease is there for everybody to see but everybody ignores it every
[1:48:14] democrat in this committee all they wanted to do was talk about measles and none of them if for years
[1:48:20] they've talked about trying to reform the food i'm doing it now and they're doing everything in their
[1:48:27] power to impede me from doing it so it's all partisanship it's all tribalism and it's not real
[1:48:33] uh it's crazy i i listen to their questions over and over again and you've made so much
[1:48:40] progress yet the democrats have tried to obstruct everything that you just talked about trying to
[1:48:45] do to make this country healthier i think it's it's totally shameful and uh there are so many things
[1:48:50] that we have yet in the time that we have left with u.s secretary and president trump in the white
[1:48:55] house things to get done one thing that you and i have talked a lot about before uh is the is what china
[1:49:01] has done to dominate the pharmaceutical industry and last year 42 percent of clinical drug trials were
[1:49:07] conducted in china used to be a hundred percent of them that were conducted in the united states
[1:49:13] why why what are drug companies getting out of that can you talk about the threat of those drug
[1:49:19] trials occurring in china instead of a in a safer environment in in the u.s i mean they're getting
[1:49:25] faster clinical trials over there and uh because we have a system that was designed you know that
[1:49:33] that's typically uh a drug from conception to commercialization because of the regulatory process
[1:49:39] takes 15 years and we can't afford to do that anymore and boy senator one of the things is it true
[1:49:46] that they're less safe obviously they're less safe they're less safe but there's all and they're also
[1:49:53] breaking all kinds of ethical rules they're you know shanghai uh minority groups in china to
[1:49:59] participate in trials that they don't want to participate in we're now doing inspections over
[1:50:04] there to catch that more importantly we need to compress the time from concept to commercialization
[1:50:11] in this country and we have a bill we're going to put before congress try to compress the phase one
[1:50:17] trial and actually make it all a seamless phase one phase two phase three and that's going to help
[1:50:23] so i we want to work with you on that thank you for your leadership mr secretary thank you senator
[1:50:27] banks uh again speaking as a physician i will say we looked up i looked up the macaulay mckinley articles
[1:50:36] there was 3.5 million cases of measles per year before the vaccine came along and about 550 deaths
[1:50:42] and then the vaccine took those to less than 100 and um like zero deaths so the efficacy of the mcaulay paper
[1:50:52] was written before for events before 1950 which is before the vaccine came out uh but then the vaccine
[1:51:00] came out and that's when deaths when cases went from 3.5 million down to near zero and deaths went to
[1:51:07] zero from 550 a year so a tremendous impact of the vaccination senator also brooks thank you so much mr
[1:51:14] chair uh good afternoon secretary uh you're familiar with aaron siri correct yes i am okay that's because
[1:51:23] he served both as your lawyer in your personal capacity and he's a lawyer for an anti-vaccine group
[1:51:30] as well um is mr siri on the federal government payroll no he is not no he's not okay so that i i find that
[1:51:39] interesting because he is apparently having a really outsized influence uh on you and in fact
[1:51:46] according to her testimony dr monterey's last august said that uh during a very contentious argument
[1:51:52] with you or kind of conversation that you told her to talk to mr siri so that she could fall in line
[1:51:58] with his vaccine policies you let him present to your now illegal and discredited vaccination committee
[1:52:04] and then this month uh you signed an updated charter for the advisory committee on immunization
[1:52:09] practices uh to focus on vaccine risk after aaron siri urged you to do so so you know despite him not
[1:52:17] being on the government payroll it looks like he is clearly for you he's a top top advisor um in your
[1:52:24] in your agency now last month mr siri threatened to sue you uh if you didn't add hundreds of health
[1:52:30] conditions to the vaccine injury compensation programs um and you know and and just like that you remove
[1:52:37] members of the advisory commission on childhood vaccinations uh to pave the way for changes so
[1:52:42] i just have to ask you mr secretary who is running this department is aaron siri running the department
[1:52:49] are you running the department oh it has nothing to do with uh with the uh uh with the vaccine court
[1:53:00] nothing no just the questions is he running the department are you running the department this aaron
[1:53:05] siri guy has a huge apparently influence yeah you're you're just filled with mischaracterizations
[1:53:10] if you want to ask me about something i will but let me just ask you this you know you're going to
[1:53:15] talk and you're going to grandstand but you're not going to get at the truth is actually he's gone
[1:53:19] public with the whole thing now he's on x and he said um you know that that he's trying he's actually
[1:53:25] trying to pressure you to immediately change your vaccine policies in fact he wrote on x i have no doubt
[1:53:31] rfk jr this is his quote wants to update the table and the only reason that he wouldn't is because the
[1:53:37] white house won't let him so is the white house preventing you from updating the vsip table uh aaron
[1:53:44] siri is an american citizen he has a right to say what he wants he does he's asking you is the white
[1:53:50] house preventing you from updating this is mr siri correct about that updating the vaccine table no they
[1:53:58] are not okay now regarding the new cdc uh director nominee part of the new team that you you said would
[1:54:05] revolutionize the cdc mr siri said that the pick will likely be a disaster and he said the only thing
[1:54:11] that schwartz will likely restore is the cdc to business as usual he said that left is his quote
[1:54:16] left to your own devices you wouldn't have even chosen her and that she is and i quote mr siri here
[1:54:22] the queen of mandating vaccines so is aaron siri wrong about this new nominee or is the
[1:54:28] president well i guess aaron siri doesn't have much influence on me after all does he so you can't
[1:54:34] have it both ways of saying he has an outside influence on our department he's suing me and
[1:54:41] criticizing me or something that he for a policy that i've made that he doesn't like so it doesn't
[1:54:49] have an outside influence or not well you're arguing out of both sides of your mouth mr secretary
[1:54:55] my next question now you've had some trouble with the truth i've seen it myself um during
[1:54:59] your appearances before congress and as we all saw clearly during your exchange last week with
[1:55:05] congresswoman sull can you admit today that you said every black kid can get reparented on a wellness
[1:55:12] farm can you admit that you said that didn't get reparented on a wellness well let me read exactly what
[1:55:19] you said you said every black kid is now just standard put on adderall on ssris benzos which
[1:55:26] are known to induce violence and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get
[1:55:31] reparented to live in a community where there'll be no cell phones no screens you know you claimed in
[1:55:37] fact you went on to say actually the whole transcript was even worse you said that that if you could you
[1:55:43] would send quote every black kid again your words not mine to go live on farms and work is that your
[1:55:50] i would have to see hear that recording because well i have the recording i have no memory of saying
[1:55:55] anything like that yeah well i actually have the recording um that i can give to you but it is
[1:55:59] absolutely what you said um and if you want me to play it i can play it if you ask me what my opinion
[1:56:05] is i i do not believe that every black kid should be reparented on a wellness farm or whatever and i
[1:56:13] have never believed that well you said it sir i have the video here in fact i'm telling you i don't
[1:56:18] believe it that's not my vision for our country well i'm glad because it was ignorant to say it was
[1:56:23] dangerous and it was irresponsible well if i said it i apologize but i'd have to see the transcript
[1:56:32] senator murky mr secretary holding corporations accountable for threatening americans health is
[1:56:53] a core part of your agenda glyphosate the main ingredient in pesticides such as roundup made by
[1:57:00] monsanto is harmful to human health in fact in 2018 you helped win a 290 million dollar verdict against
[1:57:11] monsanto on behalf of dewane johnson a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after using
[1:57:18] roundup afterwards you said quote the jury found monsanto knew what they were doing was wrong and
[1:57:27] doing it with reckless disregard for human health so let's fast forward your maha report from may of 2025
[1:57:38] cite studies linking glyphosate to cancer correctly yet strangely only four months later in september of
[1:57:46] 2025 your second maha report did not even mention glyphosate once what happened during those four months
[1:57:56] well the ceo of bear which owns monsanto which makes roundup met multiple times with the white house
[1:58:06] mr secretary yes or no were you aware of those meetings between monsanto and the white house no
[1:58:15] well you should have been aware mr secretary well the white house never tried to influence me on that
[1:58:21] issue mr secretary i believe that you are aware of the court case monsanto versus journal which is
[1:58:29] before the supreme court next monday here's the background monsanto was asking the court to protect
[1:58:37] them from lawsuits filed by cancer patients lawsuits like the one you help lead for people
[1:58:45] just like your former client mr johnson but just last month in march president trump in a brief asked
[1:58:55] the supreme court to side with monsanto and monsanto was thrilled mr secretary yes or no were you
[1:59:04] consulted before the administration filed that brief uh yes and i opposed it you opposed it so you you
[1:59:15] do you agree with president trump trying to protect monsanto from cancer lawsuits i don't think he's
[1:59:20] trying to protect monsanto i think he's trying to protect the 80 percent of american farmers who are
[1:59:26] addicted to glyphosate and who will shut down the food supply if it suddenly disappeared yeah i think
[1:59:33] your answer should be no you don't because you know that it's going to endanger the health of
[1:59:39] americans who are going to be exposed i've always said i've always said right well that that is um
[1:59:46] where this case is right now happy to explain senator or you can grandstand like you are doing grant i
[1:59:54] want to ask a question you can ask no you cannot i'm asking the question i'm saying if you want to ask
[1:59:59] a question to me you can do so that's not you can grandstand in mr secretary in 2020 you said quote
[2:00:06] in my life if my you said in 2020 if my life were a superman comic monsanto would be lex luthor because
[2:00:15] i feel like i've been struggling against it my whole life and in that same interview in 2020 you even
[2:00:22] recounted that president trump during the trial in 2020 sent a message to monsanto leadership saying
[2:00:29] we have got your back mr secretary will you tell president trump that he is wrong to have monsanto's
[2:00:37] back instead of the backs of the american people i've already expressed my disagreement to the
[2:00:44] president about this issue mr secretary despite uh the decades that you have spent shouting that glyphosate
[2:00:56] and monsanto are killing americans this is the first that we've heard because you've been silent uh
[2:01:04] with regard to trump now shielding it i have not been silent you're mistaken well we i can't find any
[2:01:11] evidence that you have said that the president publicly just now and i said it in hearings all week
[2:01:17] and i said it before publicly well it from from my perspective um this is like a a pivotal moment
[2:01:27] where it just seems to me that the only immunization you now support is helping through your silence
[2:01:35] to immunize monsanto from accountability this is a major battle that should be going on inside
[2:01:40] the administration and thus far you have been silent and it's y'all have been silent well it's your job
[2:01:49] as a member of the president's cabinet to speak up on behalf of americans uh health uh and in this
[2:01:56] instance i don't think there's enough evidence to convince you of having had that fight inside of
[2:02:01] this administration there was a national security consideration that the president that's part of
[2:02:06] his job yeah but you're not like superman you're more like kryptonite a toxic substance inside of the
[2:02:13] administration all right which is helping to poison the american health yeah thank you senator markey
[2:02:18] i have a couple quick follow-ups secretary imported seafood comprises about 80 percent of all seafood
[2:02:27] consumed in the united states but if these products are found to be unsafe contaminated for example the
[2:02:34] radiation true story currently fda is unable to confiscate it should we give the fda the authority to
[2:02:41] confiscate unsafe imported foods to basically prevent it from being imported through another port and
[2:02:48] bypassing our customs officials uh would you be would you agree that that would be a good authority for
[2:02:54] the fda to have yeah you should have that authority the same thing is true of vape senator they do port
[2:03:00] shopping because epa cannot confiscate the those adulterated products they're not legally allowed to
[2:03:10] they the ships come in to one port epa then blocks them then they go to another port and they're now
[2:03:18] coming from a u.s port so there's no inspection and it is completely ridiculous we're going to work
[2:03:24] to give fda that authority and i thank you for your agreement next this builds upon something that
[2:03:29] senator hawley asked earlier the reports of federally funded federally funded community health centers
[2:03:36] performing performing gender transition services on children and vulnerable adults now earlier this
[2:03:44] year bipartisan congress gave record funding to community health centers and we'll have to decide
[2:03:49] providing more at the end of the year were you aware of these reports about health centers performing
[2:03:55] gender transition services no and i've strongly supported the extra funding to the health centers
[2:04:01] this is the first time hearing of that got it now but can i ask you if you could assess further assess
[2:04:08] if these health centers have violated federal laws or policy the ironic thing is i'm told doj
[2:04:14] department of justice actually defends these folks in lawsuits so they are disobeying a federal an
[2:04:21] executive order not to do this and then doj defends them so it would be nice to unravel that and i
[2:04:28] appreciate that would shock me but i've been shocked before but i just can't see doj at this time doing
[2:04:36] that maybe the good samaritan provision all right we'll be sending a letter about this and i look forward
[2:04:42] to working with you i look forward to hearing about it before the committee adjourns we'll again ask
[2:04:46] the audience to stay seated until the secretary departs for any senator wishing to ask additional
[2:04:53] questions questions for the record will be due 5 p.m wednesday may 6th thank again the secretary for
[2:05:00] being here the committee stands adjourned
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