HHS Secretary Defends FY 2027 Budget to House Appropriations Subcommittee

On April 16, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget request to the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee (LHHS). The hearing highlighted several priority areas for the Administration, including chronic disease, vaccine efficacy, agriculture and food safety, rural health, and cyber and national security.

During his opening statement, Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) offered his support to the Administration and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative; however, he stated that it would be unlikely for the Administration and Congress to “agree on areas for reduction.” He continued that he is a “strong supporter of investments” for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and argued that “extreme swings in funding supporting biomedical research are counterproductive.” Later in the hearing, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) also expressed her support for sustained and robust funding for the agency, stating, “Breakthroughs do not happen by accident, they grow from long term commitments to discovery, stable funding streams, and a national belief that medical innovation is both possible and necessary.” The Administration proposed a 12 percent decrease to NIH in the FY 2027 budget request; the request to slash the NIH budget in FY 2026 was ultimately rejected by Congress (see previous coverage).

The hearing continued with several points of contention, including the Administration’s proposal to reduce the overall HHS budget by 12.5 percent and reorganize several of the department’s agencies and programs. In her opening statement, Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) criticized the request, arguing that it would harm the public health of the country. She further raised concerns about Secretary Kennedy’s personal opinions on subjects like vaccine safety and food safety influencing policy without the support of evidence-based research. In his opening statement, Secretary Kennedy argued that the Administration’s budget proposal was simply “challenging the status quo” and the system that upheld it.

Secretary Kennedy continued to field questions about the status of the department, including concerns from Ranking Member DeLauro about whether appropriated funds are being released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the appropriate agencies. Further, she requested that Secretary Kennedy share with the Committee the FY 2026 spend plans for the agencies within the department, claiming that they were being withheld. To this end, Secretary Kennedy agreed to work with staff to release the plans to Congress.

Under questioning from Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Secretary Kennedy told the Committee that HHS had replaced their nearly 20,000 terminated staff with “better” people to solve chronic disease, bringing the total employees back to the amount before the mass layoffs last year. However, when pressed by Rep. Hoyer on whether the new employees were political or career scientists, Secretary Kennedy claimed that most of the employees were recalled from the layoffs.

A recording of the hearing and witness statements can be found here. Stay tuned for COSSA’s continued coverage of the FY 2027 appropriations process.