Senators will soon get a chance to question Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Wednesday’s sudden shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy is expected to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, a person granted anonymity to describe the plans told POLITICO.
The hearing, which will focus on President Donald Trump’s health agenda, is expected to be formally announced later Thursday, a second person confirmed.
Kennedy’s appearance before the Finance panel was in the works before the White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who is now challenging her ouster. Three top CDC leaders resigned minutes after news of Monarez’s ouster broke.
Numerous Democrats have sharply criticized the CDC moves. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, where the agency is based, said “putting a quack like Bobby Kennedy in charge of public health was a grave error” and that the Trump administration’s “extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk.”
The hearing will be senators’ first opportunity to question Kennedy face-to-face since May, when he appeared separately before the Senate HELP and Appropriations committees to discuss his department’s fiscal 2026 budget request.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the HELP Committee and is also a member of the Finance panel, said Wednesday night that “these high profile departures will require oversight” by his committee.
Kennedy defended the CDC shakeup during a Fox News interview Thursday. Though he declined to talk about “personnel issues,” he added that the “agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it … and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”
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