In response to question about Trump’s proposal to nearly halve the NIH’s budget, Kennedy concedes “I think the cuts that are now proposed by NIH are gonna hurt.”
ICYMI: In Seattle, Senator Murray Highlights Consequences of Trump & Elon’s Cuts & Layoffs at NIH—Hears from Leading Researchers, Patients, and Early Career Scientists
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks and questioning of Secretary Kennedy***
***WATCH: Senator Murray rebuts Secretary Kennedy’s claims about her constituent, Natalie***
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the HELP Committee, grilled Secretary Kennedy on how the Trump administration is endangering Americans’ health and safety by slashing staff and blocking funding at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and firing nearly 90 percent of staff at the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), including nearly 100 staff in Spokane.
In their unprecedented and reckless effort to gut HHS—including pushing out 20,000 HHS employees and defunding critical research—President Trump and Secretary Kennedy are creating total chaos, delaying funding and stalling research for lifesaving treatments and cures, weakening our biomedical workforce, cancelling vital ongoing studies and delaying clinical trials, and threatening to undo decades of hard-won progress.
Senator Murray began by sharing the story of her constituent, Natalie Phelps of Washington state: “One of my constituents, Natalie Phelps—a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in Washington state. She has been fighting aggressive Stage Four colorectal cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center. She flew out to the NIH just a few weeks ago for her first appointment, and her care team wanted her to come back in four weeks to start treatment. But because of the thoughtless, mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you have carried out, Natalie’s doctors at that clinical center have told her that they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks. Now, an extra four weeks may not sound like a long time but, I will tell you, for Stage Four cancer patients like Natalie, this could mean the difference between life and death.”
Senator Murray asked Secretary Kennedy, “How many staff have been cut from the NIH’s Clinical Center? I want a specific number.”
“I can’t tell you that now, Senator Murray. What I can tell you is that if you contact my office tomorrow, I’ll look specifically into that,” replied Secretary Kennedy.
Senator Murray pressed, “Well, that is not acceptable. I want an answer back [on] that. She deserves it. She doesn’t have much time. She deserves an answer back.”
Secretary Kennedy demurred, again saying Murray should contact his office, and eventually stated: “I don’t think that should happen to anybody.”
Senator Murray then pressed: “What have you—and I mean you personally—done to assess how these staff cuts are impacting patient care? She is one of many. What have you done to assess that?” Senator Murray
Secretary Kennedy responded, “I’ve revised the guidelines and said we shouldn’t—no, no clinical trials should be affected by the cuts.”
Senator Murray made clear: “Mr. Secretary, I just have a short amount of time. They [your cuts] are impacting clinical trials. … I want to tell you, you need to know this. Natalie, is sitting there waiting.”
Secretary Kennedy then repeatedly interrupted. Senator Murray reclaimed her time and pressed further: “I am asking you a question and it is critical. You are here to defend cutting NIH by half. Do you genuinely believe that that won’t result in more stories like Natalie’s?”
Secretary Kennedy responded: “I think the cuts that are now proposed by NIH are gonna hurt. I think President Trump – you know, there’s no agency head in government like myself who wants to see their budget cut.”
After more back and forth, Senator Murray stated: “Well, I will just say that it is my job to be a voice for people like Natalie and countless other patients who are like her. So you’ve got to fix this. I want to know, and I want a personal update on Natalie’s case, and you’ve offered that, please give that to me in the next 24 hours, and I expect details and transparency about the state of NIH clinical care.”
Senator Murray continued her questioning by pressing Secretary Kennedy on the decimation of NIOSH and mass firings, including at the NIOSH Spokane Research Laboratory in Eastern Washington, which is the largest NIOSH facility west of the Mississippi River. Senator Murray has slammed the Trump administration for eviscerating the NIOSH Laboratory in Spokane as part of their mass layoffs. “I’m alarmed by your decision to essentially eliminate the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,” said Senator Murray. “You have already fired nearly 90 percent of staff. That includes the staff in my state at the Spokane Research Lab. Those are experts who do essential work to protect miners and firefighters and farm workers and people who are working in dangerous conditions. I am told that after backlash, you are reinstating some of those, mainly in the West Virginia office … nobody in the Western United States, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how you’ve made these decisions. And how do you explain this to my constituents in Spokane, who are out of a job, and the workers that are being impacted by that.”
Secretary Kennedy confirmed that he has brought back some of the workers he’d fired after facing backlash, but did not provide a rationale for the cuts in Washington, stating in part: “The work at NIOSH will not be interrupted. We’re going – I brought back 328 workers, mainly in the Cleveland office and the Morgantown office, and for the World Trade Center site. And that work will continue. The work on mine safety will continue.” However, critical mine safety research occurred at the Spokane lab—and Secretary Kennedy failed to provide any explanation for those cuts—or a commitment to rehire those workers. (Secretary Kennedy also misstated the number of fired workers that have since been rehired and where they work: 313, not 328, have been rehired, and the office in question is Cincinnati, not Cleveland.)
Senator Murray concluded: “Mr. Chairman, I would just say you can’t fire 90 percent of the people and assume the work gets done.”
Later in the hearing, Secretary Kennedy asserted that Natalie was ineligible for her clinical trial and called her story a “canard,” saying: “Senator Murray had raised the issue of a constituent of hers who she said had been denied a place in a clinical trial in Washington due to the RIF. We’ve been able to run down that case. The patient was medically ineligible for that trial. It had nothing to do with the RIF. And NIH has been trying to get her into another clinical trial, but none of our clinical trials have been shut down because of the RIF. That was a canard.”
Senator Murray returned to the hearing to respond directly to Secretary Kennedy: “Secretary Kennedy came back and said my constituent, who I spoke about earlier, [her care] was not delayed by staffing cuts. First off, she is already enrolled in that clinical trial. It’s not a question of eligibility—the issue, as I stated clearly, was the delay in care that she got. And what you stated, Secretary Kennedy, is not true.”
“I spoke with Natalie, actually, last night. She asked her NIH doctor directly why, when she was informed of the delay, and her doctor at NIH said very plainly TWICE: her care was delayed because of staffing cuts. And Mr. Chairman, I think it’s important for the record to show, my staff has put in inquiries with HHS leadership and they’ve been unresponsive so far.And, just to make clear, this is just one case of many. But those are the facts,” Senator Murray said.
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Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory. Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.
In particular, Senator Murray has been leading the charge against the Trump administration’s efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH and pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH skilled scientists, grants administrators, and other employees at the agency. When the Trump administration attempted to illegally cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent, Senator Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move, led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter decrying the proposed change, and introduced amendments to Senate Republicans’ budget resolution to reverse it, which Republicans blocked. Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research. Previously, over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Murray secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments.
Senator Murray forcefully opposed the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.
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