Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the Trump administration from attacks Wednesday during a contentious House Appropriations subcommittee hearing that included a fiery confrontation with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.
Watson Coleman grilled Kennedy about agency reorganization cutting federal spending programs, culminating in the New Jersey Democrat declaring Kennedy’s “legitimacy” as a health official had “expired.”
“The impact of reorganization is something that I shall continually ask you to show me,” Watson Coleman said. “So please let me warn you now. And I don’t want rhetoric, I want numbers.”
Kennedy said he “welcomed those inquiries” before the congresswoman pressed him on spending cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
“It is a program specifically to address the needs of low-income and minority families as it relates to heating and even air conditioning,” Watson Coleman said. “Why, why, why, why and what is your rationale for eliminating that program specifically? Why, why, why?”
When Kennedy attempted to bring up his family’s work with a nonprofit fuel company, Watson Coleman abruptly cut him off.
“I don’t care about your past,” Watson Coleman said. “I care about your functioning in this department and this administration, right now, in response to this question.”
“My time has expired,” Kennedy responded.
“Well, then so has your legitimacy,” Watson Coleman shot back. “I yield back.”
Following the tense exchange, Kennedy explained that the Trump administration’s energy policies aim to lower costs across the board, which would benefit all Americans, including low-income families.
“I’m very conscious of the importance of LIHEAP to poor people all across this country,” Kennedy said. “My brother ran a low-cost, nonprofit fuel company for most of his life that provides low-cost fuel in New England. I’ve had many, many people come up to me and said, ‘My life was saved because that.'”
Kennedy explained that the Office of Management and Budget’s rationale “was that President Trump’s energy policy is going to reduce dramatically the costs of energy in this country. And if that happens, then LIHEAP is just another subsidy to the oil industry. If it doesn’t happen, then Congress is welcome, and they should, appropriate the money for LIHEAP and I will spend it.”
Earlier in the hearing, Watson Coleman had accused the administration of “racist attacks” through its approach to diversity programs.
“Few things enrage me more than the racist attacks I see this administration carrying out by embarking on an ignorant crusade to rid the government of any programs that are working to improve the lives of Black Americans,” she said.
Kennedy defended the administration’s vision, stating, “President Trump’s vision of this country is the same as Martin Luther King’s, that we should have a colorblind administration. President Trump is deeply concerned about the maternal health crisis and the fact that Black mothers, are more likely to die in childbirth 2.6 times, 260% likely to die.”
The hearing came after significant changes at HHS under Kennedy’s leadership, including the elimination of approximately 20,000 redundant jobs and department reorganizations aimed at reducing fraud, waste, and abuse.