RFK Jr. deflects blame on vaccines as HHS budget cuts draw scrutiny

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, closed a marathon series of congressional hearings in which he defended President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 budget and fielded sharp questions about vaccines, measles outbreaks and other health-policy priorities. Over multiple days across House and Senate committees, Kennedy sought to connect his agency’s message to affordability initiatives while also disputing blame for vaccination declines that lawmakers said have fueled measles spread.

A central fight during the hearings involved who should be responsible for changes in childhood vaccination rates and the measles outbreaks that have followed, which lawmakers said threatened the country’s measles-elimination status. Kennedy repeatedly described the problem as outside his control, emphasizing that measles cases have increased globally, including in places such as Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

In one exchange described by the committee proceedings, Kennedy told lawmakers that the measles uptick “has nothing to do with me.” He cited a global rise in measles cases and argued that the current trends reflected developments beyond the U.S. federal health leadership. He also disputed accusations that he is anti-vaccine, saying he is “pro-science,” and he referenced his previous statements during the pandemic period urging people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when children should get vaccines.

Lawmakers pressed Kennedy on how HHS’s approach could affect vaccination behavior and related public-health practices. Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat from Washington, argued that Kennedy’s views had created a “spillover effect,” which she said has led mothers not to give their babies vitamin K injections at birth that are commonly used to prevent brain bleeding. Kennedy denied the assertion, saying, “I’ve never said anything about vitamin K,” and Schrier responded, “That’s exactly the point.”

While Democrats raised concerns about programs and research funding being reduced or eliminated as part of the proposed HHS changes, Kennedy acknowledged that some cuts were politically and administratively painful. Lawmakers confronted him about the administration’s budget plan for 2027, which would boost defense spending while cutting more than 12% of funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy told lawmakers that the cuts were “painful,” but said they were necessary to address the federal government’s record $39 trillion deficit.

As hearings continued, questions also shifted to the budget numbers Democrats and Republicans used to describe what would be reduced. Democrats returned repeatedly to proposals they characterized as close to nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, including changes that would be created through new work requirements for Medicaid enrollees. Kennedy pushed back on that framing, telling New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, “Only in Washington is it considered a cut.”

Kennedy cited an estimate tied to Congressional Budget Office analysis suggesting Medicaid outlays would increase by about 47% over the next decade, while experts described his interpretation as politicized. The criticism cited by the reporting said that nominal growth would be expected due to factors such as inflation and population changes, and it also highlighted a specific argument that “the federal government is spending nearly a trillion dollars less than it otherwise would have in the absence of the legislation,” attributed to Edwin Park, a research professor at Georgetown University.

Affordability concerns also surfaced as a major theme, with lawmakers from both parties questioning how costs for health care and health insurance will be controlled for voters in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections. On Tuesday, Rep. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Oregon, asked Kennedy about the impact on families, sharing that his brother pays $26,000 per year for health coverage. Bentz asked Kennedy what he could say in response, asking, “What in the world can I go back to him and say? ‘Hey, the administration is working on trying to drive these prices down?’”

Kennedy pointed to initiatives he said were aimed at lowering prices, including a TrumpRx website for discounted drugs and what the administration calls most favored nations deals with pharmaceutical companies. When senators pressed him for details of those arrangements that did not include proprietary information or trade secrets, Kennedy said he would provide additional information consistent with those limitations, while Democrats pressed him for more concrete commitments.

Kennedy’s testimony also included pushback on why particular parts of the federal health system would be cut, with NIH reductions becoming a point of bipartisan concern. Reporting on the hearing said senators asked Kennedy why different areas faced reductions, and it noted that one Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, argued that “we’re handing China our lunch,” as part of his question about the cuts. Kennedy said he and officials at HHS did not want the reductions, calling them “painful” and saying, “There’s a lot of cuts to the agency that nobody wants.”