RFK Jr. defends slashing almost a quarter of all staff at the health department: ‘When we consolidate them, Democrats say they’re eliminating them’

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans and Democrats alike on Wednesday wondered about the deep discounts of employment, and financing was frozen of the sharp political research and changes provided by US Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services Robert Kennedy Junior within a few months at the head of the country’s Ministry of Health.

Kennedy, who would have been sitting in front of the Senate Health Committee later in the day, appeared in a hearing in the House of Representatives to defend the White House budget required for his agency. The request includes a payment of $ 500 million for the “Make American Health Again” initiative to enhance the most healthy nutrition and lifestyle with deep discounts to prevent infectious diseases, medical motherhood health, low -income thermal assistance programs and pre -school programs.

Kennedy described the reduction of its size of the sprawling agency of 1.7 trillion annual trillion-from 82,000 workers to 62000-as a necessary procedure to reduce the costs that reduce repetition. He said that he only unifies many current offices that work on women’s health and the health of minorities and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

“When we merge them, the Democrats say they remove them,” Kennedy said.

But Democrats have argued that some of this monotheism will eventually affect the work of the federal government to reduce excessive deaths, study the causes of cancer or provide suicide prevention services to teenagers LGBTQ+.

Representative Madeleine Dean, a democrat from Pennsylvania, pressed Kennedy on his plans to close the Department of Narcotics and Mental Health Services, an agency that oversees the National Lunkey law, and the Americans settle on drug use annually and provide funding and guidance for addiction treatment centers. Kennedy plans to fold it in his new administration of healthy Americans.

“We call this transformation and column,” Dean said of Kennedy’s plans.

Many Republicans also spray hints of concerns about Kennedy’s job approach throughout the session.

Representative Chuck Flechmann from Tennessee Kennedy praised his work, but raised concerns about whether the Secretary had provided sufficient evidence that artificial food dyes are bad for meals. Removing these diets would harm many “snacks manufacturers” in his area, including MS Candy.

Representative Mike Simpson, a dentist from Idaho, said Kennedy’s plan to remove fluoride recommendations for drinking water warning. Simpson pointed out that the ministry’s press statement on Tuesday announced that the Food and Drug Administration plans to remove fluoride supplements for children from the market. He mistakenly claimed that fluoride “kills bacteria from teeth.” Kennedy explained that fluoride does not kill bacteria in the mouth, but instead makes the tooth enamel more resistant to decay.

“I will tell you that if you succeed in banning fluoride … it is better to put a lot of money in teaching teaching because we will need more dentists,” Simpson added.

“Why and why and why” Kennedy will extract all employees who supervise the low -income home energy aid program, which provides $ 4.1 billion in heating needy families. The program is scheduled to be canceled from the agency’s budget.

Kennedy said that the defenders warned him that the cuts “will end the killing of people”, but President Donald Trump believes his energy policy will reduce costs. Kennedy said that if he did not succeed, he will be funded for the program.

Kennedy is heading alongside the Senate, where many eyes will be in his dialogue with Republican senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, who extracted a number of guarantees from Kennedy about his approaches in vaccines.

He said during a confirmation session earlier this year, that Cassidy, a doctor, houses a number of concerns about Kennedy’s history of strengthening conspiracy theories or offending vaccines.

“Can I trust that this is now in the past?” Cassidy Kennedy asked at the time.

Kennedy has since made a mixed message about the vaccines that public health experts said hinders the efforts to contain the outbreak of measles now in at least 11 states. He made approvals for vaccinations, but he continued to ask questions about their effectiveness or safety. He said that the childhood vaccine schedule will be examined in a study of the reasons of autism. It was called measles, mumps and vaccine in the pill – a snapshot given to children to provide immunity from all three diseases – “leaked”, although it provides lifelong protection from measles for most people. He also said they were causing deaths, although none of them were documented among healthy people.

Also in the agency, he made movements that support the Anti -Qazi Movement. He rented a man who published a research indicating that vaccines caused a delay in growing to oversee a study on autism. He has finished some of the research and general health funds allocated to vaccines.

Kennedy, who rejected the Anti -Qazi Mark, said that he is “safety supporter” and wants more research on vaccines, although contracts of use and research in the real world have concluded that they prohibit fatal diseases in children safely.

“His long call always focuses on ensuring that vaccines and other medical interventions meet the highest safety standards and are supported by standard gold flag.” “As he did during confirmation, Minister Kennedy is ready to address the questions surrounding this issue.”

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

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2025-05-14 18:01:00