HHS administers health insurance programs that affect nearly half the U.S. population, including Medicare and Medicaid, and regulates medical products and food. Critics warn that the scale of the cuts could jeopardize disease response capacity, scientific research, and regulatory oversight.

Kennedy Jr. hiked to the top of a towering sandstone arch in rural Arizona with a group of Navajo Nation leaders, the impact of his agency’s cuts reached farther. Wearing a shirt with a clear request written on the front,

HELP committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) sent an invite for April 10, but RFK Jr.'s attendance was not confirmed. With the Senate off for two weeks beginning next week, the hearing may not happen until after April 28.

For decades, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been a vaccine skeptic and promoted the bogus claim that they cause autism. As secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy is overseeing billions of dollars in controversial cuts to his department and leading the response to a multi-state measles outbreak.

Trump’s secretary for health and human services questioned whether society should pay to treat people with unhealthy habits—a category he seems to think excludes anti-vaxxers.

Far as he was from Washington, D.C., as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hiked to the top of a towering sandstone arch in rural Arizona with a group of Navajo Nation leaders,