Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose drastic overhaul of the federal health device has left scientists and patients, will have a requirement of the Republican chairman of the Senate Health Commission on Wednesday to explain how his reforms “will make their lives easier, not more difficult.”
Mr. Kennedy will witnesses for the first time on Capitol Hill as a health secretary and appear back to back in front of the house and the Senate to promote President Trump’s budget for the Ministry of Health and Human Services. But he will also be asked to defend the enormous reductions he has already imposed on research grants and jobs, who have condemned important Democrats as part of what they call the ‘War on Science’ of the Lord Trump.
Mr. Trump has only published the broad contours of his budget plan, that calls for deep cuts at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr Kennedy is expected to say that the cutbacks will save money “without affecting critical services,” according to Comments he intends to deliver At the Huis Crediet Committee.
The budget blue pressure, Mr. Kennedy’s comments say: “Recognizes the tax challenges that our country is confronted with today, and the need to update our investments and to control the needs of a rapidly changing world.”
The remake of the health department, partly designed by Elon Musk and his team at the Ministry of Government Efficiency, includes cutting 20,000 jobs – A quarter of the health work. It also collapses full agencies, including Those dedicated to mental health And addiction treatment and emergency palativeness, in a new, poorly defined ‘administration for a healthy America’.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the chairman of the Louisiana Republican and Health Commission, is expected to call Mr Kennedy to “articulate a clearly defined plan or objective, according to a fragment from his prepared comments. Mr. Cassidy voted to confirm Mr Kennedy Despite intense doubts About his views on vaccines.
Mr Cassidy asked Mr. Kennedy to testify to the job reductions in the health department last month, but the secretary did not appear.
“Much of the conversation around the HHS agenda has been established by anonymous sources in the media and individuals with a preference to the president,” say Mr Cassidy’s comments. “Americans need the direct reassurance of the administration, from you, Mr Secretary, that reforms will make their lives easier, not more difficult.”
That can be a big task. A Recent poll by KFF, A non -party -related research organization for health policy showed that a majority of the public opposed major cuts on staff and expenditure at the health authorities of the country. The majority of Americans said that the Trump government “made recklessly wide cutbacks for programs and staff, including some that are needed for agencies to function.”
Awaiting the hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the ranking of the health committee, a report released On Tuesday, Mr. Trump accused of filling an “unprecedented, illegal and shameful attack on science and scientists.” The report showed, for example, that Mr Trump has reduced cancer research by 31 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the same time frame last year.
“Trump’s war on science is an attack on everyone who has ever loved someone with cancer,” Mr Sanders said in a statement. “The American people do not want us to lower cancer investigation to give more tax benefits for billionaires.”
Mr. Kennedy, one of the most vocal vaccines in the country, will probably also be confronted with questions about his management of an outbreak of measles that started in West -Texas, who killed two non -vaccinated children and one adult, and has now made more than 1,000 people in 30 states sick, according to The CDC
Mr. Kennedy has only offered a lukewarm approval of vaccination. He has acknowledged that vaccines are an effective way to prevent the spread of measles. But he has insisted that the choice to vaccinate must be voluntary.
Instead, he promoted the treatment of the disease after infection with alternative therapies, including liver oil, which contain vitamin A – a Increased that doctors said had made some children sick who took too much of it.
In the house, where Mr. Kennedy will appear before the credit committee, Democrats will claim that he and Mr Trump and Mr. Musk ‘destroy the crown jewels of our health system, said a democratic assistant who spoke on condition of anonymity to view the comments of the legislators.
Representative Rosa Delauro, the top democrat in the credit committee, will probably focus on cutbacks on scientific studies aimed at understanding and developing treatments for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. The assistant said that the cutting of basic research that is financed by NIH destroys the pipeline of future medical treatments “.
Democrats will also print Mr Kennedy on how the cuts influence clinical tests.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat van Washington, who is a member of the Health Committee, but also the top democrat in the credit committee, organized a round table discussion last week in the Seattle Children research institute to put an spotlight, Her office said, On “what is at stake for patients and families such as Trump takes a demolition ball for this study.”
In an e-mail on Tuesday, Mrs. Murray complained that Mr Kennedy was “too late to testify” after “no-show” when Mr. Cassidy invited him in April.
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