Lawmakers press Kennedy on mass cuts ahead of future budget

By Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — House lawmakers repeatedly pressed US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on canceled medical research and mass layoffs during a Wednesday hearing on Trump administration proposals that could lead to even broader cuts.

Democrats on the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittee repeatedly asked the secretary to explain cuts this year to health care programs, medical research and staffing before discussing a 2026 budget that would shrink the health agencies further.

Kennedy insisted he would spend the funds that Congress appropriated in the 2026 budget according to law. But Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, including ranking member Steny Hoyer and health subcommittee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, were focused on the agency’s spending this year, for budgets already authorized.

“We have to really keep a clear line here between a questionable proposal for ‘26 and what is going on right now against the legislation that we have passed and that has been signed into law,” DeLauro said.

The administration’s cancellation of National Institutes of Health grants amounted to $2.7 billion in eliminated research, much higher than previous estimates, according to a report issued by Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday.

In a post on X on Tuesday, HHS called the report “unequivocally false” and said it was politically motivated.

Kennedy also told House lawmakers Wednesday that Americans should not take advice from him on vaccinations.

“My opinions on vaccines are irrelevant,” he said at the hearing. “Everybody should make that decision. I seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.”

The comments came after Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, asked Kennedy whether he would vaccinate his children against measles today. “Probably for measles,” the secretary answered before adding that vaccination is a personal choice.

Pocan followed up with questions about whether Kennedy would vaccinate his children against chickenpox and polio today. Kennedy noted that chickenpox shots are not required in Europe and said again he did not want to be seen as advising families.

“What we’re trying to do is to lay out the pros and cons accurately, as we understand them,” he said.

Kennedy has previously disclosed that his children received the recommended childhood schedule of vaccines when they were younger. As founder of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, he has also criticized that schedule and claimed that the side effects of certain vaccines — including unproven links to autism — outweigh their benefits.

The secretary announced in April that health agencies would start a massive research and testing effort to distill the causes of autism, citing “environmental toxins” and other exposures.

Kennedy is testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday afternoon.

The secretary defended HHS funding and job cuts in the House subcommtitee hearing, saying that the slashes had reduced redundancy and that the proposed 2026 budget would streamline programs further.

But he also seemed to distance himself from the eliminations led by the US Department of Government Efficiency and said he had protected certain programs, including HeadStart.

“There were many instances where I said ‘That would hurt us,’ ” he told the House committee.

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