President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) testified for a second time on Capitol Hill on Thursday after appearing before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday.
“The nation is ready for change and recognizes this is a unique inflection moment,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in his opening statement to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. “Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation and debt if we don’t change course and ask the fundamental question: Why are health care costs so high in the first place?”
Kennedy, citing the CDC, emphasized chronic illness as “the obvious answer” with “over 90 percent of health care spending” going towards “managing chronic disease.”
“The president’s pledge is not to make some Americans healthy again, but to make all Americans healthy again,” Kennedy said. “[W]e will bring together all stakeholders in pursuit of this unifying goal.”
Here are the highlights from Kennedy’s second Senate confirmation hearing:
Kennedy Highlights Contributions To Senators From Pharmaceutical Industry
Kennedy went on offense following two days of interrogation by raising the point that senators on the panel have raked in millions from the pharmaceutical industry while defending blind acceptance of medical interventions such as vaccines.
“The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too,” Kennedy said to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests.”
According to a Federalist analysis of industry donations compiled by OpenSecrets, members of the Senate Health Committee, which questioned Kennedy Thursday, have received more than $5.6 million in contributions from Big Pharma roughly between 2019 to 2024. Members of the Senate Finance Committee, which questioned the HHS nominee Wednesday, received about $7 million in the same timeframe. Three senators serve on both committees.
Rand Paul Lectures Lawmakers On ‘Science,’ Clashes With Cassidy
Republican Sen. Rand Paul used his five minutes to deliver a lecture to colleagues and asked lawmakers to “give the guy a break who says, ‘I just want to follow the science, where it leads, without presupposition.’”
“I think really what we have up here is presupposition,” Paul said. “We don’t know what causes autism, so we should be more humble in what we say.”
Paul expressed Americans’ frustration with the public health establishment in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 when the nation was coerced into mandatory vaccination for lockdowns to be lifted.
“[L]et’s have an honest debate about these things … If you say a six-month-old must be mandated to get [the Covid vaccine], the science is not there,” Paul said. “[T]here’s such a belief in submission — submit to the government, do what you’re told. There is no discussion. There ought to be a debate. You’re not going to let him have the debate, because you’re just going to criticize … this is why people distrust government.”
The Kentucky senator’s admonishment of his colleagues came shortly after questioning by the committee’s GOP chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who had just demanded Kennedy pledge to “reassure mothers” that certain vaccines “do not cause autism.” Kennedy, who repeatedly professed his support for vaccines throughout both hearings, told lawmakers if presented with the appropriate safety data, he “will absolutely do that.”
Murray: People Will Die!
In a hysterical rant at the end of her questions, Democrat Sen. Patty Murray from Washington said just voting for Kennedy and, in turn, letting constituents know he is “worth listening to” “could get people killed.”
“[H]e does not even need the levers of power to influence people,” she said. “All he needs is a megaphone.”
In reality, recent polling data shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the MAHA movement and RFK Jr.’s plans to reform the food industry, as The Federalist has reported.
Kennedy Promises To Reverse Biden Rules On Adolescent Transgender Procedures
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri solicited a promise from Kennedy to roll back the Biden administration’s rules requiring physicians to perform transgender procedures that violate their conscience.
“[Biden’s] HHS issued a rule, a rule so it’s binding, requiring that every doctor in America including pediatricians who receive any kind of federal funding” to “conduct gender transition and gender so-called affirming procedures.” Hawley noted how this includes “almost every health provider in America,”
“My question to you is, will you rescind this rule that imposes this radical policy?” Hawley asked.
“Yes, I will,” Kennedy said without hesitation, adding that this rule is “anti-science.”
The industry for transgender surgeries is expected to eclipse $5 billion by the end of the decade.
Kennedy Calls Ozempic ‘Miracle Drug’
Democrat Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey asked Kennedy to deliver an opinion on the latest class of diabetes drugs deployed for weight loss in the form of Ozempic and Wegovy. Kennedy, who’s been a persistent critic of the medications called this “class of drugs” “miracle drugs” in Thursday’s hearing but qualified his support for them.
“I do not think that they should be the first frontline intervention for 6-year-old kids,” Kennedy said.
In 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) began recommending the drugs be used for children as young as 12 battling childhood obesity. The pharmaceutical manufacturers of the injections are now testing GLP-1 drugs for kids as young as 6.
Kennedy warned if “every American who qualifies for a GLP by being overweight” were to use the drugs with federal funding, “it would double the insurance costs for employers in this country, and it would be a tsunami.”
“And they shouldn’t be prescribed alone without also prescriptions for exercise,” Kennedy said, explaining patients often suffer from lost muscle tissue and myriad side effects from use.
If confirmed, Kennedy would have to choose whether to approve or deny 11th-hour rules imposed by the Biden administration to cover weight loss drugs on federal insurance programs.
Obesity Is A ‘National Security Risk’
Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana is a respected Navy officer who asked Kennedy how the American obesity epidemic is jeopardizing military readiness.
“One of the things I’ve thought a lot about,” Banks, who also serves on the Armed Services Committee, said “is the national security risk of an obese nation.”
Banks cited recently missed recruitment goals with obesity being “one of the reasons why.” According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 3 young adults aged 17-24 is “too heavy” to serve in the military.
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