Utah Rep. Blake Moore offered a rare Republican rebuke of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday morning before the House Ways and Means Committee, saying that the health and human services secretary underdelivered on his promise to uncover the causes of autism.
“I was underwhelmed with what we ultimately put out,” said Moore — whose son is on the autism spectrum — of Kennedy and Trump’s September claim that autism was caused by women taking Tylenol while pregnant.
“My wife was hurt,” Moore said, and suggested that their announcement improperly placed the blame for a child’s autism on the mother.
Moore’s criticism — respectful as it was — was atypical coming from Republicans on the committee, who questioned the former anti-vaccine activist about Trump’s slashing of the HHS budget and Kennedy’s own chaotic leadership of public health. It was the first in a series of seven hearings, likely to be contentious, at which Kennedy is scheduled to speak over the next week, including another on Thursday afternoon.
It was the first time Kennedy had addressed Congress since September, when he defended his gutting of HHS agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seven months later, many of the problems caused by those cuts remain: Kennedy still has not replaced the CDC director he fired last year (though later on Thursday, Trump reportedly nominated Erica Schwartz, a former deputy U.S. surgeon general, to lead the CDC) and still does not have a surgeon general, and his agencies are still reeling from massive DOGE cuts to programs and staff, all while deadly measles outbreaks rage across the country.
Most of the questioning from members of Congress on Thursday fell predictably along party lines, with Republicans mostly praising Kennedy and Trump’s leadership with regard to public health, including HHS’ focus on nutrition and promises to target fraud and abuse within the agency. Democrats, meanwhile, hammered Kennedy as a dangerous, self-aggrandizing conspiracy theorist, and criticized his stewardship, including the cutting of public service marketing during measles outbreaks in lieu of campaigns that promoted Kennedy himself.
Seeming to take a cue from the questioning of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last month, Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., targeted Kennedy’s personal marketing campaigns directly. She asked Kennedy whether Trump had been aware of the secretary’s recent decision to end pro-vaccine campaigns and replace them with an ad showing Kennedy enjoying a cold plunge pool while wearing jeans and hanging out with a popular MAGA entertainer.
Kennedy refused to answer the question and said Sánchez was spreading “misinformation.”
“One thing that 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, and somehow you think that’s a better public health message than informing the public about the importance of vaccines,” Sánchez said.
As in prior Kennedy’s hearings, this one often devolved into accusations and yelling.
Kennedy denied making comments about sending Black boys who take antidepressants to wellness farms where they could be “re-parented.”
“I don’t even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said. “I doubt that I said that.”
(Kennedy made the comments as a presidential candidate on a 2024 podcast.)
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Kennedy defended Trump’s 2027 budget proposal, which would cut $15.8 billion for HHS, including more than $5 billion to the National Institutes of Health.
“Am I happy about the cuts? No,” Kennedy told Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., when asked how proposed cuts to a federal program known as WIC that provides food assistance for women, infants and children interferes with his promise to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Although Kennedy steered clear of vaccines in his opening remarks, the topic has consumed his leadership at HHS, where he has (potentially illegally) gutted federal advisory panels, installed anti-vaccine activists in leadership positions and slashed millions in funding for vaccine technology. He defended his record — often with false claims.
Kennedy stood by a recent decision to limit the recommendation of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns — stating falsely that the disease posed no threat to babies whose mothers were not infected and again stating falsely that the vaccines had not been tested for safety.
“Parents can assess the risk themselves,” Kennedy said.
Somewhat surprisingly, Kennedy acknowledged that the children who died of measles in Texas might have been saved had they been vaccinated.
“It’s possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.
Several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle relayed stories of sick people in their districts, asking what HHS was doing to support them. In one particularly contentious exchange, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., alleged that the federal government had rolled back protections against air pollutants, endangering people in his Las Vegas district, and asked how Kennedy coordinated with the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Calm down, congressman,” Kennedy said.
Brandy Zadrozny is a senior enterprise reporter for MS NOW. She was a previously a senior enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York.