RFK Jr. will testify before Senate panel next week

Senators will soon get a chance to question Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Wednesday’s sudden shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kennedy will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, two people granted anonymity to describe the plans first told POLITICO Thursday.

Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said in a subsequent statement confirming the hearing that Kennedy would speak before the panel on President Donald Trump's health care agenda.

“Kennedy has placed addressing the underlying causes of chronic diseases at the forefront of this Administration’s health care agenda,” Crapo said. “I look forward to learning more about the Department of Health and Human Services’ Make America Healthy Again actions to date and plans moving forward.”

Kennedy’s appearance before the Finance panel was in the works before the White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who is now challenging her ouster. Three top CDC leaders resigned minutes after news of Monarez’s ouster broke.

Numerous Democrats have sharply criticized the CDC moves, including calling for a congressional investigation or for Kennedy to be fired. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, where the agency is based, said “putting a quack like Bobby Kennedy in charge of public health was a grave error” and that the Trump administration’s “extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk.”

The hearing will be senators’ first opportunity to question Kennedy face-to-face since May, when he appeared separately before the Senate HELP and Appropriations committees to discuss his department’s fiscal 2026 budget request.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the HELP Committee and is also a member of the Finance panel, said Wednesday night that “these high profile departures will require oversight” by his committee.

Kennedy defended the CDC shakeup during a Fox News interview Thursday. Though he declined to talk about “personnel issues,” he added that the “agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it … and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”