Skip to main content
search
Roundup
Public Health Project

Lowlights: Worst Moments from RFK Jr.’s First Two of Seven Congressional Hearings

By
April 16, 2026
No Comments

Washington D.C. – Protect Our Care presents the lowlights from Trump Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s highly contentious and defensive appearances before the House Ways & Means Committee and an Appropriations subcommittee today. 

“RFK Jr. got his first taste of accountability in a long time for his actions and rhetoric that have jeopardized both public health and health care access for millions,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch. “When confronted with his own words and the black-and-white consequences of HHS’ policies like carrying out nearly a trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts, Kennedy flat out lied and tried to filibuster – and snapped like a rabid raccoon when called out on it. Unfortunately for him, Democratic lawmakers brought the receipts and showed how the Trump Health Department research freezes, historic Medicaid cuts, and anti-vax agenda are making Americans sicker.”

RFK JR. HEARING RHETORIC V. REALITY:  

Rhetoric: RFK Jr. Falsely Denied Saying Black Children on ADHD Medication Should Be “Re-Parented”

Rhetoric: RFK’ Jr: “This administration, under my leadership and President Trump’s leadership, is doing more to advance maternal health than any other administration in history. It was tremendous duplications of departments. We had 42 different maternal health services in our department, and we cut some of those and consolidated them. But right now, we are investing huge amounts of money in maternal health.” 

  • Reality: The Trump FY2027 budget proposal would eliminate support for some of the most critical maternal health programs in the country, such as Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs), Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs), the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), and Healthy Start. 

Rhetoric: RFK:  “There have been no cuts to Medicaid” 

  • Reality: The Big, Ugly Bill touted by RFK Jr. cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, the largest cuts to the program in history. Three million Americans have lost their Medicaid coverage since its passage and millions more will be kicked off their health care when deeper cuts hit in 2027, all to give tax breaks to the rich. 

Rhetoric: RFK Jr. claimed his department has “done better” at preventing measles than “any country in the world.”

Rhetoric: RFK Jr.: “We lost a lot of employees at CDC”

  • Reality: They weren’t “lost”, they were arbitrarily and carelessly fired by RFK Jr. Within 24 hours of RFK Jr. being sworn in as HHS Secretary, the Trump administration targeted roughly 5,000 federal health workers for layoffs, including dozens at NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, sending an immediate signal that core scientific programs were in the crosshairs. In March, Kennedy announced that HHS would restructure and cut 10,000 more full-time employees across health agencies. This came on top of 10,000 employees who left voluntarily, shrinking the workforce from about 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000. But this wasn’t enough — during the October government shutdown, the administration moved to permanently terminate another 1,100 to 1,200 HHS staffers, more than any other department except Treasury. Public health leaders warn that the combination of mass layoffs and ad‑hoc reinstatements at HHS is reckless and will make it harder to protect Americans by disrupting outbreak surveillance, program continuity, and essential services. 

Rhetoric: Kennedy claimed “President Trump made the BIGGEST one-time investment in rural healthcare in American History.” 

  • Reality: Secretary Kennedy Oversaw the Largest Cuts to Rural Health Care in History: gutting over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA, putting over 330 rural hospitals at risk of closure and service cuts, shuttering rural clinics across the country, and hiking premiums for millions of rural Americans. GOP cuts are crumbling an already strained infrastructure, expanding maternity care deserts, and leaving Americans from Iowa to Georgia more than 45 minutes away from the care they need.

LAWMAKER HIGHLIGHTS: 

  • Rep. Sewell: “Mr. Secretary, in a 2024 podcast interview, you suggested that black children on ADHD medication should be “re-parented.” // RFK. Jr.: “I don’t even know what that phrase means, and I doubt that I said it.” // Rep. Sewell: “You absolutely said it, it’s a quote.”  
  • Rep. Dean: Did you recommend cutting $261 million from SAMSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention? // RFK Jr.: We didn’t cut that money. // Rep. Dean: Have you read your budget?
  • Rep. Harder: “What I don’t understand is how you can spend your entire career talking about this issue, and then the first minute that you get power to do something about it, you take off the mask and become an apologist for an administration that is increasing mercury more than any other in history.”  
  • Rep. DeLauro: “You are the head of Health and Human Services. Is there not some moral responsibility or compunction to say “Don’t drink raw milk”? … Is that not your responsibility?”  
  • Rep. DeLauro: Mr. Secretary, you cannot strengthen public health systems by defunding the CDC. You cannot support medical research by cutting $6 billion from the NIH. And you cannot improve access to quality health care by kicking 15 million people off their health insurance. 
  • Rep. Schneider to Secretary Kennedy: You are diminishing science. “You are making it harder for Americans to lead. … You are not making Americans healthier, you are making Americans sicker, hurting our economy, and making our children’s futures less prosperous and less secure. You should be ashamed of yourself.” 
  • Rep. Horsford after RFK Jr. refuses to answer questions about lowering costs: “The fact that you can’t answer a basic question—like bringing down cost and coverage, which should be your top priority—is concerning. Not some podcast, but actually addressing the needs of people.” 
  • Rep. Panetta: “Mr Secretary, your stance on vaccines and the vacancies in the public health leadership coincide with a continuing decline of public trust in federal health authorities—something that has only gotten worse with the current administration.” 
  • Rep. Chu on RFK. Jr’s elimination of Hep-B from the childhood vaccine schedule: “Secretary, you’ve done an incredibly harmful thing to our community. … It’s clear that this administration has no regard for the health, safety, and wellbeing of Asian American communities, as well as communities across the United States.” 
  • Rep. Chu: “President Trump campaigned on the promise that he would lower costs, but his record while in office has been the complete opposite. … Remember Mr. Secretary, you once said, ‘For the cost of the Ukraine war, we could make childcare affordable for every family.” It’s ironic that Trump is doing the exact opposite. … It’s a slap in the face to every American.” 
  • Rep. Sanchez: “You suspended this pro-vaccine messaging campaign, but somehow you are spending tax payer dollars to drink milk shirtless in a hot tub with Kid Rock, and you think that’s a better public health message than informing the public about the importance of vaccines? Really?” 
  • Rep. Sanchez: “The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on, and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlates with the dramatic increases in preventable diseases.” 
  • Rep. Thompson: “Mr Secretary, do you have a medical or public health degree?” // RFK Jr.: “No.” // Rep. Thompson: “No? Yet you’re overruling doctors, scientists, and public health experts across the country. Your dangerous conspiracy theories are undermining safe and effective vaccines. … You undermine vaccines and are helping to make diseases deadly again.”

HEARING HEADLINE ROUND UP:

###



Close Menu