Kennedy testifies in marathon of seven congressional hearings

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., kicked off a marathon series of congressional hearings Thursday by testifying in back-to-back hearings in front of the House Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees.

Kennedy is expected to largely tout the successes of the Trump administration with things like food, nutrition, reducing his department's budget and lowering drug prices, but he will have to defend his changes to vaccine policies, according to The Hill.

The secretary told lawmakers that he was not happy about his department's new budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which would slash $16 billion from the current budget. The savings include changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

“Am I happy about the cuts? No, I’m not happy about the cuts,” Kennedy said. "[But] we got a $39 trillion debt.” 

Kennedy also told the Appropriations Committee that his proposed $5 billion funding cut for the National Institutes of Health was intended to “recalibrate” the agency to focus on chronic diseases.

“Thirty billion of it is going to chronic disease, which they’ve never studied before,” Kennedy said. 

The secretary additionally defended his team of experts on a controversial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel, stating that it was "absolutely, completely, utterly wrong," to think they did not have the expertise needed for the panel.

Kennedy is now expected to testify in front of Senate committees on Friday.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.