Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clashed Tuesday with Senate Democrats over the Trump administration’s push to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” at federal health agencies.
Mr. Kennedy turned his fire on Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, after she questioned his previous claims about HHS staffing cuts and funding delays.
“I want to point out something, senator, you have presided here for 32 years, you presided over the destruction of the health of the American people,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Our people are now the sickest people in the world because you have not done your job.
“What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?” he said.
Ms. Murray pushed back, saying Mr. Kennedy was looking to pick a fight while she was looking for answers about his budget request and about who was responsible for firing staff and terminating grants for child care programs.
“What you are doing right now is enacting your budget that Congress has not passed by cutting critical funding across the board,” Ms. Murray said.
The tense exchange occurred as Mr. Kennedy testified about the Trump administration’s 2026 budget request before the Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
He also faced several questions about the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to downsize the agency.
Mr. Kennedy said reducing the number of full-time employees from 82,000 to 62,000, streamlining agency divisions and federal programs, and reducing spending, including the “indirect” cost of medical research grants, will lead to better outcomes.
“If somebody does not recognize this mess, it is going to continue, and we are trying to do it. We are going to make some mistakes as we do it, but ultimately, I can tell you four years from now, the American people are going to be a lot healthier,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Trump’s 2026 budget request seeks to cut HHS funding by 26%.
This includes a $18 billion cut to NIH grants to private universities — a good chunk of which the White House says went toward overhead costs.
Democrats have decried the reduction in the HHS budget request, saying it will jeopardize the research for lifesaving cures and treatments for diseases.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Democrat, said the proposed NIH cuts would set back “medical innovations for decades,” “push the brightest minds to work in other countries,” and “cede our leadership in biomedical research to China.”
“It would also take hope away from millions of American families,” Ms. Baldwin said.
She also said HHS is overstepping its authority by withholding NIH grants and CDC money that Congress has already approved.
Mr. Kennedy said that HHS is cutting down on administrators and duplicate programs and noted that the federal agency has grown 38% in the last four years.
“We spend 70% of the world’s biomedical research out of NIH, 70%, and we are the sickest country in the world,” Mr. Kennedy said. “So that money has not been well spent.”
Mr. Kennedy knocked heads with Ms. Baldwin after she pressed him on whether tens of millions in grant money for Alzheimer’s, cancer and rare diseases were held up because the Trump administration targeted them as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
“This is a fun game we are playing,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Ms. Baldwin said, “This isn’t a game.”
Mr. Kennedy snapped back that Ms. Baldwin asked questions that she did not “give me a chance to answer.”
Republicans on the committee embraced Mr. Kennedy’s message.
They said the cuts to NIH make sense, particularly at private universities with large endowments, where the vast majority of the money goes to something other than research.
“We will fund cutting-edge research at the NIH while cutting risky or nonessential studies, which includes ending gain-of-function experiments and research based upon radical gender ideology,” Mr. Kennedy said in his open remarks.
The NIH said $9 billion of the $35 billion in grant dollars doled out last year went to indirect costs, which they seek to cap at 15%.
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, dismissed the outcry from Democrats as political grandstanding.
“You understand there is nothing you can do to make my Democratic colleague happy?” the senator said.
The secretary responded, “I am coming to understand that, senator.”
