Lawmakers grilled Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on cuts and changes to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which focuses on preventive health screening
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., suggested he plans to change a pivotal government committee that advises clinicians on preventive disease screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies and makes recommendations about what screening tests insurance will cover.
The secretary of health and human services made the remarks at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance to answer lawmakers’ questions about the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 health budget.
At another Senate hearing last Thursday, Kennedy said he planned to reform the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, calling it “lackadaisical and negligent.” He also said he would bring on new members, although it is unclear if he meant that he will fire the current members or simply add the new ones to the existing group.
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At today’s hearing, Republican senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who is a doctor, said that he had relied on the task force’s recommendations for years and asked Kennedy whether he had a serious plan for reforming it.
Kennedy said that the current committee doesn’t adequately represent several medical specialties; a notice that is scheduled to be published on Thursday reportedly states that the Department of Health and Human Services is seeking nominations from clinicians such as anesthesiologists and oncologists, among other specialists, according to CNN. Kennedy also vowed to increase transparency in the task force’s meetings. And he said HHS was seeking applications for new members for the task force and had received résumés.
A point of contention homed in on by lawmakers was the fact that most of the committee’s planned meetings for last year were postponed indefinitely and haven’t yet been rescheduled. Kennedy said he had “not done a good job” at getting the meetings rescheduled but that he planned to do so.
Democratic senator Christine “Tina” Smith of Minnesota asked the secretary about the recently passed Trump administration tax bill’s cuts to Medicaid, which covers preventive health screenings: “Would you agree that mammograms are important preventative health care...? It makes me wonder why your agency cut the programs that fund breast cancer screenings,” Smith said. “Nobody who is legally enrolled in Medicaid is ... losing coverage,” Kennedy said. He and some Republican lawmakers repeatedly alluded, without evidence, that health care fraud was behind the Medicaid cuts.
The shake-up comes after Kennedy overhauled a key CDC vaccine advisory panel by firing its members and handpicking his own to replace them last summer. A judge subsequently blocked those appointments, as well as sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that were enacted this past January.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s Note (4/22/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.
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