HHS Secretary Kennedy on the President’s 2026 Health Care Agenda and CDC Leadership Shakeup
On September 4, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to address the President’s 2026 health care agenda. Several members of the Committee used the opportunity to question Secretary Kennedy on the recent termination of Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez and the Administration’s vaccine policy and recommendations, as well as their priorities for improving rural health.
In their opening remarks, Senator Crapo (R-ID), Chairman of the Finance Committee, expressed his support for Secretary Kennedy’s leadership of HHS, noting the Secretary’s commitment to ending “waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal health care programs.” On the other side of the aisle, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Ranking Member of the Committee, highlighted a recent report he released in cooperation with Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Costs, Chaos, and Corruption: 203 Days of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Disastrous Leadership. The report chronologically outlines recent actions taken by Secretary Kennedy, provides case studies that indicate the costs associated with these actions, and highlights several promises made during his confirmation hearing in order to get necessary votes that were broken once he was in the role. Wyden further raised concerns about the fate of vaccine policies under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, addressing the removal of the Senate-approved CDC Director and CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) (previous COSSA coverage). Senators from both parties joined this line of questioning, including Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), among others.
In his opening remarks, Secretary Kennedy claimed the recent terminations of CDC leadership was “absolutely necessary” and that it is “imperative to remove officials with conflicts of interest, catastrophically bad judgement, and political agendas” within the agency. Director Monarez, who was fired in August for allegedly clashing with Secretary Kennedy on vaccine policies, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal accusing him of pressuring her to accept vaccine recommendations from the newly appointed ACIP, despite her belief that the recommendations would “weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.” Secretary Kennedy denied the allegations and claimed Dr. Monarez was “untrustworthy.”
Later, Sen. Cassidy, who is the Chair of the Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) and a physician, submitted a peer-reviewed study disputing Secretary Kennedy’s claims that the terminated ACIP members had conflicts of interest (see previous COSSA coverage). In July, the Senate HELP Committee Democrats also launched an investigation into these unprecedented firings. With rising concerns about Secretary Kennedy’s commitments to preserving vaccine accessibility, the Senate HELP Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing with Dr. Monarez and Debra Houry, the Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science at the CDC, who resigned in protest over Dr. Monarez’s termination (watch live here).
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