'Excuse me, sir': RFK Jr. refuses to vow not to target staff with retaliation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday refused to rule out retaliation against hundreds of National Institutes of Health scientists over a joint letter signed and delivered in protest of HHS cuts and layoffs.
Testifying in front of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a ranking member of the subcommittee, briefed RFK Jr. on the letter signed by hundreds of scientists under HHS condemning the department’s policy changes under RFK Jr.’s leadership, which include the termination of 2,100 grants with $9.5 billion, $2.6 billion in contracts, and the mass firing of thousands of employees.
“On June 9, hundreds of NIH scientists sounded the alarm on how this administration wasted millions of research dollars, injected politics into science, and damaged the public trust; 68 Nobel laureates signed this letter,” DeGette said. “On June 10, we sent you a letter – of course, we haven’t gotten a response – with our concerns that you or your staff might retaliate against them for telling the truth.”
DeGette then asked Kennedy. if he would commit to taking no retaliatory action against signatories to the letter, a question that RFK Jr. would first dodge.
“I can commit that we are absolutely depoliticizing science,” Kennedy said before being interrupted by DeGette, who pressed him to answer her original question.
“Excuse me sir, I asked you a simple question,” DeGette said. “Will you commit to not taking retaliatory action against the NIH scientists that signed the research letter?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Kennedy stated, refusing to answer.
The HHS has cut approximately 10,000 employees under RFK Jr.’s leadership, and has also implemented sweeping reforms, including the termination of funding for studies on health disparities, studies the agency has labeled as “diversity equity and inclusion” studies, studies on the impacts of climate change, and on gender identity and sexual health. The agency has also dissolved a number of international collaborations, which the NIH scientists said will “slow scientific discovery.”