Congress used its first major hearing of the day to corner U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on two hot-button issues at once: vaccines and proposed cuts to health and science funding.
“Look, I can hear the air-conditioning kicking on,” a staffer nearby muttered as the secretary began his opening remarks. The mood in the room stayed tense anyway, because Kennedy wasn’t just defending policy—he was trying to pivot away from his controversial place in American vaccine debates and toward broader health goals, like nutrition and chronic disease prevention.
In his statement to the House Committee on Ways and Means, Kennedy said, “We cannot hope to make America great again without first making Americans healthy again,” and argued that “The bedrock of health—the key to reversing the chronic disease epidemic—is nutrition.” Still, Democratic members pressed repeatedly on his vaccine opposition and the government’s handling of measles, which has surged to thousands of cases in the past year. The back-and-forth didn’t stay focused for long: questions about science agencies and health spending kept looping back to vaccines, and then—almost right away—to cuts.
The hearing was also framed as Congress’s first chance to probe the administration’s 2027 presidential budget request, or PBR, for HHS divisions under Kennedy’s purview. That includes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. Misryoum newsroom reported the PBR calls for a nearly 13 percent cut to NIH and a 32 percent cut to the CDC. And while the Republican majority tended to ask about topics like insurance fraud and support for rural hospitals, Democrats broadened their questioning into a wider, louder critique of Kennedy’s record—his vaccine stance, past comments tied to measles and autism, and his social media appearances.
Lawmakers also challenged Kennedy on claims that health care and research spending would be less harmed than critics fear. Kennedy leaned into a list of department “achievements,” including new dietary guidelines, removal of some dyes from food, and shortened drug approval times. In recent months, Misryoum newsroom reported, the Trump administration has toned down Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines after it reportedly turned off voters, swapping in a “low-risk messaging diet” centered more on food safety. Yet even as he emphasized food and prevention, the question of whether vaccines would be taken seriously enough lingered.
Kennedy, for his part, parried questions about large scientific research cuts at NIH—the country’s $48-billion basic biomedical research colossus. He suggested the reductions would not meaningfully affect scientific outcomes, and argued instead for shifting emphasis to disease prevention research. Early on, he described the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an advisory body that recommends screenings paid for by health insurers—as “lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years,” saying he would install new members after the panel canceled three of its four scheduled meetings so far under the Trump administration’s second term. During the hearing, Misryoum editorial desk noted, a University of Washington School of Medicine microbiologist criticized the idea that Kennedy would replace the “respected committee” with “quacks and kooks,” and warned American physicians wouldn’t simply fall in line.
The broader budget picture is stark. Misryoum analysis indicates the presidential 2027 budget released on April 3 calls for a 10 percent cut in federal nondefense spending—including science—resulting in $660 billion, alongside a 40 percent defense increase resulting in $2.2 trillion. Misryoum newsroom also reported that Congress largely ignored prior White House science cuts last year and kept spending roughly flat. Still, critics at Thursday’s hearing pointed to the administration’s deportation efforts as potentially harming American science, which relies heavily on international talent since World War II.
Later on Thursday, Kennedy headed to the House Committee on Appropriations, which controls his department’s budget and will evaluate the latest proposed cuts to science agencies. Last year’s request sought a 40 percent slash to the federal science budget, and Congress rejected it. “I was very pleasantly surprised” by resistance among Republicans on appropriations last year, Misryoum newsroom reported Democratic representative Bill Foster of Illinois said in an interview with Scientific American on Tuesday. “It will be interesting to see if that pattern persists.” And at least for now, it’s not clear whether Congress’s patience will hold—or whether this hearing becomes one more step in an ongoing fight over health, vaccines, and what science is allowed to look like next.
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