At a contentious House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services while facing sharp bipartisan scrutiny. The hearing—his first appearance before Congress in months—focused heavily on a roughly 12% budget reduction, which Kennedy framed as part of a broader effort to curb waste and refocus on prevention and nutrition initiatives.  

Certain comments from Kennedy also raised concerns among hospitals participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. In response to a question on rural health funding, he criticized the program’s growth and alleged that some hospital systems are misusing 340B savings by “taking 340B money” from rural areas to build hospitals in affluent areas, going on to say:  

“Those kinds of thefts we’re seeing all the time, and that’s one of the ways that this systematic and perverse transfer of wealth from rural America to more affluent areas is happening every day.”  

Hospital stakeholders strongly dispute these claims, noting that the 340B program is subject to strict federal oversight, compliance requirements, and routine audits, with little evidence of widespread abuse.  

During the hearing, Kennedy also stated that he plans to overhaul the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—the committee tasked with determining which preventive services insurers must cover. He claimed that “the committee has been lackadaisical and negligent.” Since Trump took office last year, three of the four committee meetings were cancelled by HHS.