Tensions flared Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confronted Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) over what he characterized as decades of declining American health and questioned the accuracy of claims about staffing and clinical trial cuts at the National Institutes of Health.
The exchange began with Kennedy sharply criticizing Murray’s record, accusing her of failing to improve public health during her time in the Senate.
“You’ve presided here, I think, for 32 years. You presided over the destruction of the health of the American people. Our people are now the sickest people in the world,” Kennedy said during his testimony.
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Murray, who has represented Washington in the Senate since 1993, immediately pushed back.
“Seriously?” she asked, to which Kennedy retorted, “What have you done about it? What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?”
As the discussion escalated, Subcommittee Chair Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) intervened, urging Kennedy to allow Murray to proceed with her questioning.
The hearing, held to review HHS’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, became contentious as Murray questioned Kennedy about the department’s decisions regarding funding for child care and scientific research.
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“Mr. Secretary, I’m asking you a question about child care,” Murray said.
“I’m asking you who made the decision to withhold child care and development block grant funding?”
Kennedy responded, “That was made by my department.”
The confrontation shifted to recent staffing decisions at NIH. Murray accused Kennedy’s agency of firing thousands of employees and canceling clinical trials across the country.
“And you said last week, quote, ‘We were not cutting thousands of scientists. We are not cutting clinical trials.’ But I want you to know, in the last four months, you fired or pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH staff and terminated more than 1,600 NIH grants. That includes more than 240 clinical trials across the country,” Murray said.
“So whose decision was it to fire scientists and terminate these NIH grants and the clinical trial?”
Kennedy challenged the credibility of Murray’s statements.
“Senator, I don’t trust your information with all due respect,” he said.
“You told me what, three days ago or four days ago, that we had cut a clinical trial in your state and… what you said turned out to be completely untrue. And you knew it was untrue because you corresponded with [NIH Director] Jay Bhattacharya before that.”
Murray responded, “You came here to argue with me. I came here to ask you questions about your budget request. Your budget request is asking us to cut dramatically. But I am also making the point that Senator Baldwin made, that what you are doing right now is enacting your budget, that Congress has not passed, by cutting critical funding across the board.”
The two had previously clashed during a separate Senate hearing the week prior, where Murray raised concerns about a constituent undergoing cancer treatment.
“Mr. Secretary, one of my constituents… she’s a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in Washington state,” Murray said.
“She has been fighting aggressive stage four colorectal cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial she’s participating in at the [National Institutes of Health’s] Clinical Center.”
“But because of the thoughtless mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you carried out, Natalie’s doctors at that clinical center have told her they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks,” she said.
Kennedy responded, “I can’t tell you that now, Sen. Murray. What I can tell you is that if you contact my office tomorrow, I’ll look specifically into that.”
Murray pressed further, saying, “That is not acceptable. I want an answer.”
To paraphrase…
Murray: NIH cuts delayed Natalie’s clinical trial for stage 4 cancer.
RFK Jr: Call me. I’ll get her into the clinical trial ASAP.
M: That is not acceptable.
🙄
Seems Patty just wanted to use Natalie’s story, not actually help her.
— Kristen Mag (@kristenmag) May 15, 2025
During Tuesday’s follow-up, Kennedy told the committee that the constituent in question had qualified for the clinical trial that week, adding, “We shouldn’t be talking about patients’ private information.”
Murray agreed, but did not withdraw her criticism of the department’s actions.
The hearing concluded without a resolution to the dispute, but underscored deep divisions between the Biden-era holdovers in Congress and the current administration’s efforts to reshape the federal health bureaucracy.
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In a Democrat machine state, Murray has always served as the Democrat pull toy who will do as she’s told. The only thing dumber is Washington state voters.
Typical game the leftists play when they aren’t getting every penny they want (which is still never enough). Ubama did it too during sequestration; shut down the most legitimate functions of government and left the lazy, fraudulent bureacrats untouched. Murray creates “Natalies” and loves to make them as bad as they can be, whether real or exaggerated. Just like leftist anti-gunners break out the champagne after every “mass” shooting.