After a long absence from Capitol Hill, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent the past week answering lawmakers at seven congressional hearings and subcommittee sessions. Though the appearances are framed around the Department of Health and Human Services’ fiscal 2027 budget request, questioning has ranged widely — from rural health and hospital drug pricing to the nomination for CDC director and maternal health concerns.
Kennedy’s return to extensive oversight comes after months in which he made major, sudden changes at HHS without outside-adviser input and declined to appear before Congress to explain them. He altered the childhood vaccine schedule, did not come to Capitol Hill after a spike in measles cases that marked the highest U.S. totals in three decades, and withheld $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota without offering congressional testimony. Those moves, critics say, upend long-standing norms and invite scrutiny.
So far, Republicans on the panels have generally been friendly, while Democrats have sharply criticized Kennedy over vaccine skepticism, maternal health outcomes and rising Affordable Care Act premiums. The hearings continue Wednesday, when Kennedy is scheduled to testify before two influential Senate committees: Finance and HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions).
A key dynamic in those Senate sessions is Kennedy’s relationship with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. Cassidy, a physician and vaccine supporter, cast the tie-breaking committee vote last year to recommend Kennedy for HHS secretary. He said at the time he had secured commitments to an unusually close, collaborative relationship: regular meetings, involvement in hiring decisions, quarterly HELP appearances if requested, and adherence to existing vaccine policy systems.
Many of those assurances have not been realized. Kennedy has not testified regularly before HELP despite Democratic requests, and he has made sweeping changes to federal vaccine policy that Cassidy has publicly criticized. The tension has spilled into politics: allies of Kennedy’s PAC have endorsed a challenger to Cassidy in his Republican primary. On a CDC webpage affirming that vaccines do not cause autism, a footnote notes language remained due to an agreement with Cassidy, even as content reflects Kennedy’s long-standing, widely debunked assertions about vaccines and autism.
Kennedy’s standing with President Trump also hangs over the hearings. He and his priorities were omitted from this year’s State of the Union, unlike prior mentions, and Trump has dismissed three Cabinet members in recent weeks. Asked if the administration had told him to temper public comments about vaccines, Kennedy said no, and he said he was unaware of Republican polling suggesting his vaccine stance could be politically risky for the party heading into midterm elections.