Some lawmakers said during a committee hearing that vaccine guidance changes are endangering Americans, while others praised the health secretary.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on April 16 faced lawmakers both critical and supportive of actions regarding vaccines made by himself and agencies under his oversight.
Multiple Democrats on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee said during a hearing with Kennedy in Washington that the narrowing of vaccine guidance and rollback of campaigns urging people to receive vaccines is endangering Americans.
“Let me be clear: nothing has changed in the science behind vaccines,” Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the panel, told Kennedy during his opening remarks. He accused Kennedy of politicizing the issue.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with support from Kennedy, has scaled back recommendations for vaccinations against influenza, rotavirus, and four other illnesses, although those changes are held up after being stayed by a federal judge.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said that it was “incredibly harmful” to end the recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth, asserting that all babies are at risk.
“Hepatitis B is a terrible disease, but babies are not at risk,” Kennedy said. “They essentially have zero risk unless their mother is infected.”
He also touched on his broader outlook on shots, noting that even with the rollback in recommendations, none of the vaccines were removed from vaccination schedules.
“Parents can assess the risk themselves through informed consent. Insurance will pay for it,” he said. “We just believe that Americans should have that choice, that the state should not make that choice for them.”
Kennedy was appearing before Congress for the first time in 2026. He has multiple other hearings scheduled in the coming days, including one on Thursday afternoon.
The CDC also in 2025 stopped campaigns that encouraged vaccines, including messaging that emphasized people should receive influenza shots. That drew criticism from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who said that a messaging campaign could have prevented the measles outbreaks that have appeared across the country since mid-2025.
When Sanchez asked if President Donald Trump approved ending the campaigns, Kennedy declined to answer, telling the congresswoman her remarks contained “a lot of misinformation.”
He added later, “We’ve done better at preventing measles and ending the epidemic than any country in the world.”
