After quietly overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule and taking other major actions at the Department of Health and Human Services without outside consultation, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has returned to a much louder Washington spotlight. He declined requests to appear before Congress last year even as the U.S. finished 2025 with the most measles cases in three decades and after HHS withheld $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota — moves that generated bipartisan calls for oversight.
This week, lawmakers finally pressed him for answers. Kennedy testified in seven hearings across multiple House and Senate committees and subcommittees. While the stated purpose was scrutiny of HHS’s 2027 budget request, questioning ranged widely: rural health and hospital drug-pricing policy, maternal and public-health outcomes, Affordable Care Act premium increases, and the background of the administration’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy’s marathon schedule ends Wednesday with two consequential Senate sessions — Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a key HELP member who voted last year to advance Kennedy’s nomination and cast the tie-breaking committee vote in favor, said he expected an “unprecedentedly close, collaborative working relationship” that would include regular communication, HHS hiring input and periodic HELP appearances.
Many of those expectations have not been met. Kennedy has not consistently appeared before HELP despite Democratic requests, and he has overseen sweeping vaccine-policy changes that Cassidy has publicly criticized. Friction between Kennedy and some Senate Republicans has become visible: allies of Kennedy have backed a primary challenger to Cassidy, and a CDC webpage that states “Vaccines do not cause Autism” includes a footnote noting the language remains because of an agreement with Cassidy. Kennedy’s repeated suggestions of a possible vaccine-autism link clash with extensive research and the positions of major health organizations.
During the hearings, Republicans generally treated Kennedy more deferentially, while Democrats pressed him on vaccine skepticism, worsening maternal health outcomes and the financial effects of health policy on consumers. Kennedy told the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee that the White House had not instructed him to speak less publicly about vaccines and that he was unaware of Republican polling suggesting his vaccine views could be unpopular or risky for the party in midterm contests.
Kennedy’s relationship with President Trump remains a factor. He and his priorities were not mentioned in this year’s State of the Union, and the president has recently dismissed three Cabinet members, highlighting how precarious Cabinet jobs can be. The week of hearings is likely to shape how much freedom Kennedy has to reshape HHS policy and how intensively Congress will continue to scrutinize his decisions.