Democratic lawmakers repeatedly grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in a House hearing Tuesday about his actions in the Trump administration so far, including what they described as a lack of transparency around major decisions.
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., told Kennedy he has promoted "unfounded and unscientific" therapies and conspiracy theories without providing data and evidence. "Science is not on your side," Pallone said, adding that people are "going to die as a result of your actions and congressional Republicans' actions."
"All of this has been done behind closed doors without any public engagement, despite your pledge to lead with, I think you called it, 'radical transparency,'" the lawmaker said.
Pallone asked Kennedy if he'd keep Congress informed of his decisions and answer inquiries from members of Congress in a prompt manner.
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After Kennedy replied he would, Pallone said the secretary had not responded to 10 letters from him on a range of topics, including cuts at HHS. Nor has Kennedy given any indication that he intends on answering them, Pallone added.
Pallone wanted Kennedy to commit to responding to each of the letters by Aug. 1 or provide a date this could be done.
Kennedy said HHS has gotten an "unprecedented number of letters" from Congress. "I'm not gonna tell you a date," he said.
"The bottom line is here: We have no transparency. You feel no responsibility to Congress whatsoever, and you just continue this ideology that's anti-science, anti-vaccine, that's all I see," Pallone said. "I see nothing else and I don't think I'm ever going to get a response."
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Kennedy testified Tuesday on his agency's budget request before a House panel, where he faced questioning about changes to U.S. vaccine policy, among other topics.
Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., said Kennedy made an "ill-informed decision" in reversing the routine recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and healthy children under 18.
Kelly said multiple major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, were concerned or opposed to this change to the vaccine guidance.
Kennedy said Kelly's understanding of the new COVID vaccine guidance was wrong.
Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., held up a copy of an assessment the Department of Health and Human Services released in May that aimed to address the key drivers behind childhood chronic disease.
Ruiz said Kennedy's wide-ranging "Make America Healthy Again" report was "riddled with mistakes, misconstruing and intentionally or not misstating key references, data and evidence that either do not exist or not accurately reflected in the report."
A sticky note with a handwritten "F" could be seen on the report Ruiz held up.
When multiple journalists reached out to authors of the studies included in the MAHA assessment, some said they didn't write the papers that were cited or the cited papers didn't exist.
Ruiz asked Kennedy if he read the report and fact-checked the sources before it was published, to which Kennedy said he had not fact-checked the report.
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"Why then did the report include a citation to sources that don't even exist. How does that happen under your leadership, sir?" Ruiz asked.
"All of the foundational assertions in that report are accurate," Kennedy said.
"They did not exist. How can they be accurate if they did not exist, sir?" Ruiz said.