HHS secretary proposes wide reorganization and budget cuts in FY2026 plan, prompting sharp questions from committee

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health that his fiscal year 2026 budget would shrink bureaucracy and reorient HHS toward prevention, chronic-disease reduction and ‘‘making America healthy again.’'

Kennedy said the administration would ‘‘shift funding away from bureaucracy toward direct impact’’ and consolidate overlapping offices across HHS as part of a transformation intended to cut waste and reduce federal spending on health programs. ‘‘We will shift funding away from bureaucracy toward direct impact,’’ he said in his opening statement.

The plan Kennedy outlined would include program consolidations and staffing reductions across the department. He described eliminating what he called ‘‘redundancies’’—for example, multiple offices for women’s health and minority health, numerous procurement and human resources units, and duplicate opioid and maternal-health programs—and said the department had already…