RFK Jr. Faces Congress

United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Source: NYT.

United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy made his return to Capitol Hill Thursday for the first of seven hearings scheduled over the next two weeks. This marks his first congressional testimony in more than six months, and arguably the most consequential stretch of accountability his tenure as HHS Secretary has yet faced. The timing is notable. The White House has been quietly trying to refrain from Kennedy’s agenda, and he arrives on the Hill with his political influence diminished from its peak. His opening remarks contained a telling omission: the word vaccine does not appear once. Instead, Kennedy touted drug pricing deals and new dietary guidelines, framing his tenure around chronic disease rather than the anti-vaccine activism that defined his pre-cabinet career. This was hastily pointed out. Democrats pressed him on the upsurge in vaccine-preventable diseases including measles. And the sharpest rebuke came not from across the aisle but from within his own party. Rep. Blake Moore (R-Ut.), whose son is on the autism spectrum, told Kennedy he was "underwhelmed" by the administration's September claim that autism was caused by Tylenol taken during pregnancy. "My wife was hurt," Moore said. Looming over everything is a proposed $16 billion cut to the HHS – budget cuts that would gut the very public health infrastructure Kennedy claims to be rebuilding. The contradiction between his Make America Healthy Again rhetoric and the administration's proposed funding slashes is the central tension of these hearings, and Congress has six more opportunities to press it.