After a lengthy absence from Capitol Hill, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the past week answering lawmakers at seven hearings and subcommittee meetings. While the appearances were officially tied to HHS’s fiscal 2027 budget request, questioning ranged across topics from rural health and hospital drug pricing to the CDC director nomination and maternal health concerns.
Kennedy’s return to high-volume oversight follows months in which he made abrupt, high-profile changes at HHS without seeking outside-adviser input and largely avoided congressional appearances. He revised the childhood vaccine schedule, did not testify before lawmakers after a spike in measles cases that produced the highest U.S. totals in decades, and withheld $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota without explaining the move to Congress. Critics say those actions break long-standing norms and invite scrutiny.
So far, Republicans on the panels have generally been accommodating, while Democrats have pressed Kennedy on vaccine skepticism, poor maternal health outcomes and rising Affordable Care Act premiums. The hearings were set to continue Wednesday, when Kennedy was due to appear before two influential Senate committees: Finance and HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions).
A central element of the Senate sessions is Kennedy’s relationship with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. Cassidy, a physician who supports vaccination, cast a pivotal vote last year to recommend Kennedy for the HHS post. At the time, Cassidy said he had secured commitments to an unusually close working relationship, including regular meetings, input on hiring, quarterly HELP appearances if requested, and adherence to existing vaccine policy frameworks.
Many of those assurances have not been realized, Cassidy and others say. Kennedy has not been a regular witness before HELP despite Democratic requests, and he has implemented sweeping changes to federal vaccine policy that Cassidy has publicly criticized. The tensions have spilled into politics: allies of Kennedy’s political action committee have endorsed a challenger to Cassidy in his Republican primary. On a CDC webpage affirming that vaccines do not cause autism, officials noted a footnote remained because of an agreement with Cassidy, even as the page’s broader context reflects assertions about vaccines and autism that Kennedy has long promoted and that have been widely debunked.
Kennedy’s standing within the White House also shadowed the hearings. He and his priorities were left out of this year’s State of the Union address after previous mentions, and the administration has recently dismissed three Cabinet members. When asked whether the administration had asked him to temper public comments about vaccines, Kennedy said no, and he also said he was unaware of Republican polling that suggested his vaccine positions could be politically risky for the party ahead of midterm elections.