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The House Appropriations Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held hearings last week on Trump’s 2026 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with HHS Secretary Kennedy testifying.
Reminder: The budget request proposed cutting more than $30 billion from HHS, nearly a quarter of the agency’s budget. It requested major cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and other agencies.
- BUT: Congress, not the White House, is responsible for passing budgets.
The details: In his written testimony, Kennedy said the budget request streamlines behavioral health programs, avoids duplicating block grant-funded programs, and eliminates programs that are “too small to have a national impact.”
Read more: In combative hearings, Kennedy defends HHS cuts, backtracks — and lashes out; RFK Jr. faces a dual grilling on the Hill; GOP embraces RFK Jr.’s MAHA at House hearing, but raises dissents from dental health to food dye reform; Democrats confront RFK Jr. on budget cuts, but will need Republican help to stop them
Published
May 2025