House members got their first opportunity Thursday to grill Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as he kicked off a marathon series of seven congressional hearings in seven days with back-to-back hearings in the Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees.
In the two appearances, his first before Congress in 2026, Kennedy defended his record in leading the nation’s health agency as Democrats sought to push back against proposed budget cuts and changes to vaccine policy.
Kennedy faced a very different political environment from the one in which he appeared before Congress seven months ago, when his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement seemed to be at its most politically powerful.
Kennedy and his allies last year overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer shots while also shaking up key leadership positions across health agencies.
But with an eye on the 2026 midterm elections, the White House wants Kennedy to stop talking about vaccines and focus on other MAHA “wins.”
The administration sees him as an asset, so long as he avoids talking about unpopular changes to vaccine policy.
Thursday was the first high profile test of that strategy. Here are key takeaways:
Kennedy stays on message
In his opening remarks in both hearings, Kennedy touted the administration’s moves on food and nutrition as well as drug pricing. He highlighted new dietary guidelines and partnerships with companies to eliminate artificial food dyes.
He also defended the administration’s proposed budget for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, which would slash $16 billion from the current fiscal year’s appropriated amount. The proposal includes substantial cuts to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“Am I happy about the cuts? No, I’m not happy about the cuts,” Kennedy said. But, he added, “we got a $39 trillion debt.”
In his Appropriations Committee testimony, Kennedy said the proposed $5 billion funding cut for the National Institutes of Health was meant to “recalibrate” the agency to focus on chronic disease.
“Thirty billion of it is going to chronic disease, which they’ve never studied before,” Kennedy said.
When Democrats tried to press him on vaccines, Kennedy mostly avoided the shouting matches and testy exchanges that punctuated his last appearance in the Capitol.
In an example of his toned-down rhetoric, Kennedy acknowledged to Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) that it was “possible, certainly” that the measles vaccine could have saved the life of an unvaccinated child in Texas who died of measles complications.
Can’t escape vaccine issue
While Kennedy tried to avoid the vaccine political landmine, Democrats weren’t going to let him off the hook as they sought to point out any perceived difference between Kennedy and the White House.
When Sánchez questioned Kennedy about HHS canceling a pro-vaccination messaging campaign, he declined to say whether President Trump approved the decision.
“One thing I find incredible is that you suspended this pro-vaccine messaging campaign, but somehow you’re spending taxpayer dollars to drink milk shirtless in a hot tub with Kid Rock,” Sánchez said. “And somehow you think that’s a better public health message.”
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) also confronted Kennedy over his reluctance to endorse vaccines.
“Mr. Secretary, kids have died because measles is running rampant under your watch,” Thompson said.
Toward the end of the Appropriations Committee hearing, things got chippy between Kennedy and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) when she noted the sharp rise in measles cases in 2025 compared with the year before President Trump took office.
“You’re implying that that is because of a drop in vaccination rates … 80 percent of those numbers are people over 5 [years old]. They had nothing to do with me,” Kennedy said. “Vaccination rates dropped after COVID because of mismanagement.”
Kennedy also took exception when Dean said the members of his handpicked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel “lack the expertise required to make evidence-based recommendations.”
“Wrong,” Kennedy yelled. “Absolutely, completely, utterly wrong.”
A federal judge last month blocked most of Kennedy’s changes to the panel and the childhood vaccine schedule.
Zeroing in on fraud and waste
Throughout the opening hearing, Democrats focused on undermining some of the more popular parts of the administration’s agenda, like eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
They repeatedly called out what they said was the Trump administration’s hypocrisy for claiming to root out waste, fraud and abuse while convicted fraudsters were given presidential pardons.
Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) set the tone for the minority by pressing Kennedy on Trump’s pardoning of John Duncan Fordham and Joseph Schwartz, who were both convicted of defrauding federal health programs of millions of dollars.
“If we’re going to talk about fraud, it’s not the people just at the lower end of the economic scale. If we’re going to pursue fraudsters, it’s not just the people who might make simple, honest mistakes that could be corrected,” Neal said. “There needs to be an evenhanded approach, including not passing out pardons to people that might be supporters of the administration.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) questioned Kennedy about 850 ObamaCare brokers who were suspended under the Biden administration because of suspected fraud and later reinstated under Kennedy’s tenure.
Doggett demanded to know whether all suspected brokers had been thoroughly investigated and whether any further complaints had been made against them.
After some back-and-forth, Kennedy said, “I don’t know why those people were reinstated.”
Nod to MAHA
The MAHA movement is facing political headwinds. MAHA voters were a key part of the coalition that helped Trump win the 2024 election, and Kennedy sought to smooth over potential breaks with the administration.
The nomination of Casey Means, President Trump’s surgeon general pick, has stalled amid GOP disagreements in committee.
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), who is running for Senate against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), was effusive in her support for Means and prodded Kennedy to elaborate on why her confirmation is crucial.
“Casey Means is the most articulate, eloquent and erudite evangelist for the MAHA movement. She wrote the bible on metabolic health,” Kennedy said. “Casey Means is not a political person. She is just a very, very effective evangelist for the kinds of changes we need to end the chronic disease epidemic in this country.”
Key MAHA leaders were also upset over President Trump’s executive order to boost domestic production of the widely used weedkiller glyphosate.
Kennedy told lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee he had “grave reservations about the president’s executive order” but said he understood the administration’s national security concerns.