Kennedy tells Sen. Murphy the admin didn't back off the nursing home minimum staffing rule because the industry contributed $4 million. "the real pressure was coming from congressmen and from senators who are in rural areas.. A lot of these rural areas.. they'd have to close the nursing home"
Is this part of the satirical rebrand, I can’t even tell
BALDWIN: Do you think NIH should fund less cancer research?
RFK Jr: No, they should fund more, & one of the few agencies that got a raise in the budget was NCI
B: That increase is less than $1m for an institute with a $7b budget. That's a .01% increase. It wouldn't even cover one additional grant
Sen. Kennedy asks Secy Kennedy why so few hospitals are getting fined for violating Trump admin transparency rules.
RFK: We now have promulgated final regulations..they're legally bound.. there are draconian punishments for them and we've already sent out I think 1,000 warning letters.
Shelley Moore Capito: January 2025, there were 93,153 employees at HHS. There are now 74,313.. Do you feel that there has been any abatement of service or quality?
Kennedy: I do not. During Covid my agency grew by 38%
and we are now right sizing it
Capito: Yeah, at pre-covid levels, it was 82,000
Susan Collins pushing Kennedy on cutting funding for medical research: "I still think we have a problem if grants are being scanned for the word 'women' and then clawed back."
learning from mole rats about peaceful succession.
New: Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is resigning from Congress.
www.notus.org/congress/she...
this really could be a tectonic shift in the healthcare lobbying battles. As powerful as healthcare lobbies are, the rest of big business is much larger.
American Prospect, re the fraud talk we've been hearing at the Kennedy hearings
AOC: "we're giving [MA companies] $13 billion when they are stealing $80 billion a year, as it is. I say we let them eat it."
So AOC asks why CMS gave Medicare Advantage insurers a $13B raise.
Kennedy says "I agree with you on everything that you said... but.. I have to balance the impact on patients if there are no options in those areas."
AOC to RFKj: "One area of agreement that we have, I hope, is that these insurance companies are fleecing the public, right? Can we agree on that?"
Kennedy: "Absolutely."
Rep. Bentz (R-Ore.) asks Kennedy what he could tell his brother, who pays $26,000 for insurance with a $13,000 deductible, what he can say the admin is doing "to drive these prices down."
Kennedy seemed stumped, pointed to prevention, then finally picked up his notes to list a number of things
Rep. James raises another alert for hospitals, asks RFKjr to crackdown on transparency rules, support codification.
J -I would appreciate your support on making that permanent, so that it cannot be ripped away from the American people after this administration is concluded
K- Happy to work with you
Rep. Trahan to Kennedy after that previous exchange: "You managed to give a 'Go Gators' from the witness table, but not a 'Go K shot.'"
Rep. Cammack responds: "I do want to just say thank you for actually trusting moms to make the best decisions for themselves and their families, rather than continuing to perpetuate the narrative that only bureaucrats In Washington can make recommendations."
Schrier explained a vitamin K shot "prevents catastrophic brain bleeds. And now that you've made parents distrust doctors and shots, some parents are now refusing the vitamin K shot and other routine care, putting these babies at risk for bleeding out."
Schrier asks Kennedy if he would tell women the Vitamin K shot is safe for babies.
K- I literally never said anything about it.
S- That's exactly the point. You don't say anything about it. But the doubt you've created about all of medicine and science is causing parents to make dangerous decisions.
Rep. Dr. Kim Schrier to Kennedy on his Hepatitis B vaccine standards: "You're basically sentencing 1000s of kids to a terrible chronic illness that you want to prevent for no reason. At the same time, you're suggesting to parents that there's something wrong with the vaccine."
Kennedy kept telling Rep. Barragan he can't hear her. She slows down, talks extra loud like RFKjr is a senile deaf uncle, asking about comments last week that family used to take care of people for free: "Do you remember that?"
He did. He said it was about fraud, not forcing women to quit jobs
Kennedy again shouts out CHCs: they're by far the best facilities for treatment of Americans, for preventative care, and for 24 hour care. And they're mainly targeted to poor Americans. We put $135 million into that for nutrition, to improve nutrition in them, but also for retention of workers.
FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national security.
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Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.): If Erica Schwartz is confirmed as CDC director, "will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues, without interference."
RFK: "I’m not going to make that kind of commitment."
"Because you probably won't. You’ll probably fire her."
Hospitals take note:
Buddy Carter to Kennedy: "I am not trying to end the 340B program, but I think it has evolved into something it was never intended to be."
Kennedy: "You're right in the way that you characterize it... It has become a boondoggle."
Pallone to RFK jr.: Will you commit here today that you will oppose any cuts to federal health care programs to fund the ongoing war with Iran?
Kennedy: Franky no, I want to talk to you about what you said about my family
!
RFK jr. to Brett Guthrie: "We are losing scientists, we're losing our IP, we're losing physicians, we're losing the best researchers, and we're going to lose our biosecurity."
The Trump admin is all in using labor law in healthcare. Asst Labor Secy Daniel Aronowitz: "We are clearly focused on using the full power of ERISA—never been done before—to hold health insurance companies accountable, to hold service providers accountable, and to drive better value and lower cost."
“It’s because of the cumulative pressure that is on us,” said Elan's Patrick Hall “I’ve taken every bit of borrowing that I can. I am leveraged to the hilt, but I am still trying to provide access to healthcare for my employees."
