A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is testifying in the Senate this morning after a week of upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, Kennedy pressured the brand-new CDC director, Susan Monarez, to resign. When she refused, the White House fired her. Then three top CDC officials resigned in protest. Now, that is the backdrop as Kennedy faces the Senate Finance Committee this morning. Selena Simmons-Duffin covers health policy for NPR, and she told us what to know about heading into this meeting.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Kennedy has replaced a key vaccine advisory panel with his own handpicked roster of people who have a history of anti-vaccine activism. They are set to shake up recommendations on a variety of vaccines later this month. Several Democratic lawmakers, a variety of public health groups and more than a thousand current and former HHS employees have all called on Kennedy to resign in the last few days.
MARTÍNEZ: Calls for him to resign seem to be resonating with Democrats in Congress.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yesterday, California, Washington and Oregon launched the West Coast Health Alliance to coordinate their own health guidance and vaccine recommendations.
MARTÍNEZ: Selena also gave us more context on Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He's on the Finance Committee.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Cassidy is a physician. He chairs the Health Committee, which oversees HHS, and he believes strongly in vaccines. Kennedy won Cassidy's vote by promising he wouldn't change that CDC vaccine advisory panel. Obviously, Kennedy broke that promise. He fired everyone on that committee and replaced them.
MARTÍNEZ: And now we can turn to some of what is happening in the Finance Committee room hearing. Here's Secretary Kennedy near the top of the hearing. He was soon interrupted by a protester.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: We have been the busiest, most proactive administration in HHS history. In just half a year, we've taken on food dyes, baby formula contamination, the GRAS loophole, fluoride in our drinking water, gas station heroin, electronic cigarettes, drug prices, prior authorization, information blocking...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: [inaudible] prior authorization [inaudible] .
(SOUNDBITE OF GAVEL BANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: It takes over three months to get a prior authorization.
(SOUNDBITE OF GAVEL BANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Senator Kennedy, do you know some people...
(CROSSTALK)
MICHAEL CRAPO: The committee will come to order.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: ...Authorization? You're killing millions of people.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, Kennedy has gotten a start on that list of issues that he mentioned, and some states have passed laws on things such as food dyes and labeling ultra-processed foods. But for the most part, NPR's reporting shows that meaningful change in public health and health policy has not happened yet. And from that introduction, Kennedy and Democratic Senators were going at it. Here's an exchange with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RON WYDEN: I don't get letters from thousands of people who are not political saying that this set of changes is going to damage American health care and particularly these health care agencies for decades to come. I don't get any letters from people saying...
KENNEDY: Well, you know, maybe the people...
WYDEN: ...Hey, this is going to make a big difference forever.
KENNEDY: And maybe you're listening to a selective group of people.
WYDEN: Well, you get me some of the letters from...
KENNEDY: Yeah. And I will...
WYDEN: Fine. OK.
KENNEDY: I will tell you what, Senator.
WYDEN: I've got 30 seconds.
KENNEDY: I will put my mailbag against your mailbag any day of the week.
WYDEN: I've got 30 seconds.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. More coverage on npr.org, Here & Now and All Things Considered today for continuing coverage. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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