'You're A Kennedy': Jahana Hayes Puts RFK Jr. In His Place For Unruly Behavior During House Hearing

[0:00] We're going to move now to the gentlelady from Connecticut, Mrs. Hayes. [0:05] Thank you. [0:06] Good afternoon. [0:08] Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States. [0:13] Pediatricians, trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, and public health experts have [0:18] repeatedly described firearm injury as a public health emergency. [0:23] As my colleague stated, when you were asked during your confirmation hearing if you believe [0:28] firearm violence was a public health crisis, you answered with one word, no. [0:34] You went on to say, you believe that HHS can explore solutions for the behavioral health [0:39] and substance abuse epidemic without compromising sacred rights and freedom. [0:44] According to Ed Week, which measures school shootings at K-12 schools resulting in injury [0:49] or death, there have been 26 school shootings since you were sworn in. [0:54] According to the Gun Violence Archive, which measures any gun discharge on school grounds, [0:59] there have been 240 incidents since you were sworn in. [1:03] In 2026, we have seen school shootings in Rockland, Maryland, Detroit, Michigan, Crandall, Texas, [1:10] Boulevard, Texas, Ferguson, Missouri, Oklahoma, Bethesda, Maryland. [1:16] As you stated, I understand that you don't have full jurisdiction over the law enforcement [1:23] side, the DOJ, the FBI. [1:26] And since this committee has refused to respond to my request for a hearing on school shootings, [1:32] I want to ask you about the things you do have direct jurisdiction over. [1:37] HHS holds jurisdiction over public health aspects focusing on mental health services, trauma support [1:43] for survivors, data collection and data collection to prevent gun violence. [1:48] Since under your tenure, we've seen threats of cuts to SAMHSA, cuts to school-based mental health [1:53] programs, cuts to the CDC staffers who work on research and prevention, cuts to bipartisan [2:00] community violence prevention programs. [2:03] They've been terminated. [2:04] So Mr. Secretary, since you were sworn in and now have full visibility of the harm of gun [2:09] violence to children, has your position changed? [2:12] Do you believe gun violence is a public health crisis? [2:16] I believe it's a public health crisis, but it's not. [2:20] We don't have jurisdiction to enforce- The things you do have jurisdiction over. [2:25] And we're doing those. [2:26] We're doing more studies on the etiology and cause of gun violence, the first that have [2:32] ever been done in years. [2:34] Sir, I have to stop you. [2:36] We're doing those- I only have five minutes, and I apologize, but- [2:40] You asked the question, so I answered it. [2:41] Well, I want to know specifically why the research and the funding has been cut for these programs [2:46] that address trauma, that address student survivors, that address school-based mental health programs [2:53] for students who are affected by gun violence. [2:55] You're putting out all of these programs, all of these studies about keeping kids healthy. [3:00] Keeping kids alive is part of keeping them healthy. [3:03] And we're trying to do that by doing the studies to understand why people commit mass shootings. [3:09] But you've also cut funding- That has not been done before. [3:12] You've also cut funding- That's been done by the Trump administration- [3:14] You've also- Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to exercise some restraint. [3:18] You're a Kennedy. [3:19] You know how oversight hearings work, and we don't want the second graders to think that [3:24] your interruptions are rude, disrespectful, or impatient. [3:27] So I'm going to have to ask you to just allow me to finish my questions. [3:30] Well, don't pretend you're asking- In my home state of Connecticut, where I was a school teacher, [3:34] in the classroom on the day 20 children were slaughtered and six educators, we worked really hard [3:41] to see firsthand how to invest in our communities and provide prevention. [3:46] Connecticut has created some of the strongest school-based violence prevention systems in [3:50] the country through multidisciplinary threat assessment teams, early intervention programs, [3:55] and partnerships that help schools identify concerning behavior. [4:00] I put forth a bill, the School Violence Prevention Act, to begin to collect data to see how we can [4:06] have federal programs to address these traumatic outcomes for kids. [4:12] Many of the things that we fought for in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act have been cut. [4:20] So I have to ask you, what have you done to address the health of children? [4:26] You point out so many other things about the food they eat, all these other things. [4:34] What have you done to keep kids safe from gun violence outside of commissioning a study? [4:40] As I said, we have known law enforcement, Congress has not given us law enforcement. [4:46] I'm not asking you about law enforcement, sir. [4:49] What we do is we study issues, and we study problems, and we're doing that with gun violence, [4:55] which has not been done before. [4:56] Specifically a study that you've commissioned? [4:59] We did a study on school shootings to look at what the shooters have in common, [5:11] what medications they may have been receiving, whether they were on SSRIs, whether they were [5:16] on benzos, and we're expanding that now across the agency to do even more of those. [5:24] The gentlelady's time has expired. [5:26] I'd like more information on that study because I'm unaware of it, I yield back.