With much to cover, Democrats tackled Kennedy’s MAHA report; the firing of all members of the CDC’s ACIP committee; and much more. Little was accomplished, as Kennedy demurred and members of Congress accused him of risking American lives.
Members of Congress expressed their frustration at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s failure to provide transparent explanations of his policies on vaccines, research cuts and the reductions in force that have caused chaos at all agencies under the HHS umbrella.
“Mr. Secretary, the science is not on your side. I just really think that people are going to die as a result of your actions and congressional Republicans’ actions,” Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) said at Tuesday’s Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the HHS budget for 2026, speaking to the changes to vaccine policy that have occurred across HHS.
The hearing, which was supposed to focus on HHS’ upcoming budget, got contentious at times. Kennedy at one point accused Pallone of taking $2 million from pharmaceutical companies and then refusing to stand up for “victims of vaccine injury.” After reprimand, Kennedy withdrew his comments.
Pallone accused Kennedy of having “dangerous” views on vaccines that are not supported by science. He also asked why Kennedy has not committed to a public process for his controversial policies. Kennedy said the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) committee is the public forum for vaccine policy—to which Pallone responded that Kennedy had fired all the members.
Kennedy went on to accuse those former members of having conflicts of interest (COIs) with the pharmaceutical industry. Experts who spoke with BioSpace universally said ACIP members’ COIs had been appropriately managed and highlighted that two of Kennedy’s newly chosen advisors previously served as expert witnesses in a vaccines case against Merck.
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) asked about the decision to remove the recommendation for pregnant women to receive a COVID vaccine. The recommendation that pregnant people receive a COVID shot still appears on the CDC website, Kelly pointed out. She asked for clarification on the agency’s policy.
“We’re not depriving anybody of choice. If a pregnant women wants the COVID-19 vaccine, she can get it,” Kennedy said. But he asserted that there have been dozens of adverse events in pregnant women who have taken the COVID vaccines and therefore his agency will not recommend it.
Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, asked Kennedy about several vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough. She accused Kennedy of spreading misinformation.
“You have lied to the American people. You have lied to parents about vaccines for 20 years. And I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every death from a vaccine preventable illness at your feet,” Schrier said.
With much ground to cover on vaccines, and other issues to get to, Pallone expressed his frustration and called for Kennedy to return.
“I do believe the secretary must appear here again very soon for an oversight hearing on the unprecedented and troubling chaos he’s created at the vaccine panel and its impacts on people’s access to life saving vaccine,” Pallone said.
‘Galileo Got an F’
Democrats also tackled Kennedy’s MAHA report, which was found to be riddled with errors, the banning of publishing in certain medical journals and much more, with contention between the congresspeople and Kennedy continuing throughout the hearing.
On the MAHA report, Rep. Rual Ruiz (D-Calif.) asked if Kennedy had read and approved the citations in the report prior to its publication. The errors identified in the MAHA report were characteristic of AI-generated faslities.
“If somebody turned this in as an undergrad to their professor at UCLA, they would have received an F, sir,” Ruiz said.
While Kennedy was unable to get a word in, Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) defended his work. “I would remind everybody that Galileo got an F during his day and age, and sometimes people who are trying to do cutting edge work don’t get the response they expect from the leading scientists of the day,” Griffith said.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) took a more pragmatic approach, pledging to work with Kennedy on drug pricing initiatives. She also pushed Kennedy to commit to adjusting the Inflation Reduction Act’s “pill penalty,” which provides a shorter timeframe for small molecule drugs to be subject to pricing negotiations under Medicaid as compared to biologic drugs.
Griffith also asked about compassionate use for investigational drugs for devastating diseases like Huntingon’s. “It’s worth taking the risk on something new that has some promise and being flexible,” Griffith said. Kennedy pledged to expand compassionate use programs.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) asked Kennedy to commit to supporting the priority review program for rare pediatric diseases, which expired at the end of last year. Kennedy said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes some provisions to relax regulatory burdens for rare disease approvals. He also said the FDA will be using AI to speed approvals, but did not specifically mention the PRV program.
Bilirakis sought more details on the new commissioner’s national priority voucher program. Kennedy said the program, which “crashes through the red tape,” is already in use and has been applied to “a number of new drugs.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Fla.) asked about Kennedy and FDA Commisisoner Marty Makary’s commitment to cell and gene therapy. Kennedy said, “It is the medicine of the future,” adding that both Makary and National Institute of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya want the U.S. to be a hub of innovation for the modality.
