Chicago – May16, 2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that Elon Musk’s DOGE effort drew up the blueprint for spending cuts that are reshaping the Department of Health and Human Services — and Kennedy and his team implemented them. Kennedy also said he pushed back on some cuts and has reinstated a few programs cut mistakenly.
Kennedy faced hours of questioning Wednesday in two congressional committee hearings — one in the House Appropriations Committee and one in the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee.
The official topic was President Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2026, but many other issues came up including the autism research Kennedy has launched, the measles outbreak in west Texas and the massive overhaul of HHS, where 20,000 employees have been fired or taken a buyout or early retirement.
In general, Kennedy stood behind the huge sweeping changes to his agency — though he has backtracked slightly on a case-by-case basis. Otherwise, he is staying the course with Trump’s plans to cut billions more from the HHS budget, which Kennedy acknowledged will be “painful.”
