Washington (AP) Democrats and Republicans have concerns about profound personnel sections, financing of freezing points and far-reaching political changes on Wednesday, which of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. F. Kennedy Jr.
A cross -party group of legislators questioned Kennedy’s approach for the job, some said that he had endangered the inclusion of vaccines, cancer research and dental health in a few months.
In combative and sometimes very personal backmaster, Kennedy defended the dramatic efforts of the Trump government to redesign the extensive agency of $ 1.7 trillion a year, and explained that it would provide a more proficient department among the Americans.
“There is so much chaos and disorganization in this department,” said Kennedy on Wednesday during the hearing of the Senate. “We say that we can be organized in such a way that we can quickly take over and provide all of these options in order to provide the American people of high -quality health care.”
During the tense exchange, the legislators – in the back of Back to Back House and Senate – sometimes questioned whether Kennedy was aware of his actions and the structure of his own department after trying to obtain further details on personnel cuts.
“I have found that in most cases you cannot answer any specific questions about your agency,” said Senator Angela Sobrooks, a democrat in Maryland.
The secretary in turn pushed back – he had no time to answer specific questions – and to points in which the legislature questioned his own understanding of health policy.
Kennedy said to explain his downsizing of the department – from 82,000 to 62,000 employees – and argued on behalf of the budget of the White House, which includes an enhance in 500 million US dollars for Kennedy’s “Make America Health Net” initiative to promote nutrition and healthier lifestyles and at the same time prevent food and mothers research Carried out research programs.
He revealed that he persuaded the White House to withdraw from a huge cut: Head Start, a state -funded preschool program for families with low incomes across the country.
However, legislators described how thousands of job losses in the Ministry of Health and the Financing Frinsal have influenced their districts.
A mother from Washington State, Natalie, has exposed itself to the treatment of cancer in stage 4 in the clinical center of the National Institute of Health of Health of Health, said Democratic Senator Patty Murray. The clinical center is the only research hospital, which is generally known as the “House of Hope”. When Murray asked Kennedy to explain how many jobs were lost there, he could not answer. The President’s budget suggests a slash of almost 20 billion US dollars before the NIH.
“You are here to defend the NIH by half,” said Murray. “Do you really think that does not lead to more stories like Natalie?” Kennedy denied Murray’s account.
Democratic MP Bonnie Watson-Coleman from New Jersey asked: “Why, why, why, why?” Kennedy would be released almost all employees who supervised the program to support houses with low incomes, which delivers the needy families of 4.1 billion US dollars of heating heating. The program is to be excreted from the agency’s budget.
Kennedy said that the lawyers had warned him that these cuts “kill people”, but that President Donald Trump believes that his energy policy will reduce the costs. If that doesn’t work, Kennedy said, he would restore the funding for the program.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, said that these savings would be realized too delayed for people in their state.
“At the moment, people in Alaska still need these ugly generators to stay warm,” she said.
Murkowski was one of several Republicans who expressed concerns about Kennedy’s approach to the job during the hearings.
Like several Republicans, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann from Tennessee Kennedy praised his work to promote robust food. However, he expressed concerns whether the secretary has provided appropriate evidence that artificial food dyes are bad for diets. Removing these food dyes would violate the “many snack manufacturers” in his district, including the makers of the sweets from M&M, he said.
Rep. Mike Simpson, a dentist from Idaho, said Kennedy’s plan to remove fluoride recommendations for drinking water alarms. The press release of the department on Tuesday, in which the Food and Drug Administration plans to remove fluoride preparations for children from the market, mistakenly claimed that fluoride “kills bacteria from the teeth,” noted Simpson. He explained Kennedy that fluoride does not kill bacteria in the mouth, but makes the enamel more resistant to the tooth enamel against decay.
“I will tell you that if you are successful, we better bring fluoride into tooth training because we will need a lot more dentists,” added Simpson.
Kennedy was repeatedly put under pressure on the mixed message, which he transmitted to vaccines. Experts in public health hinder the efforts to contain a growing measles outbreak in at least 11 countries.
Kennedy replied to Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, and refused to follow the child’s children’s vaccination schedule, which includes shots for measles, polio and whooping cough. Instead, he wrongly claimed that the vaccines were not tested against a placebo.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana and Chairman of the Health Committee, had won a number of guarantees by Kennedy that he would not change the existing vaccine instructions and would work in the state’s Ministry of Health. Cassidy, the Kennedy corrected, pointed out that Rotavirus, measles and HPV vaccines recommended for children were all tested in a placebo study.
As a health secretary, Kennedy appointed measles, mumps and rubella in the vaccine – a shot given to the children to offer the immunity of all three diseases – “leaking”, although it offers lifelong protection against measles for most people. He also said that they caused deaths, although no one was documented in robust people.
“They have undermined the important role of roles that have been playing in the prevention of diseases during the only, greatest measles outbreak for 25 years,” said Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders.
