Senators from both parties press Kennedy to cut health care budgets

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican senators who oversee federal spending appear skeptical of proposed cuts to health research and public health in the White House budget, potentially pushing a congressional package that ignores many of the administration’s most dramatic proposals into its second year.

At a Senate Appropriations and Health Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers questioned Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about how the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, which cuts the Department of Health by 12%, would allow the department to address chronic disease, smoking cessation and cancer research.

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The demands are largely similar to those proposed last year and include deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the elimination of health research agencies and the creation of a new agency dedicated to chronic diseases called the Administration for a Healthy America.

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