Secretary Kennedy Testifies Before the Senate Finance Committee on the Healthcare Agenda, Sep. 4, 2025
September 4, 2025 · ABC News · 3:00:40
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What happened
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate Finance Committee on September 4, 2025, on President Trump’s 2026 healthcare agenda, carried live by ABC News. Opening the hearing, Chair Mike Crapo said the administration has placed patients at the center of the health care system and given HHS a renewed focus on tackling the root causes of chronic disease and on ending waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health care programs, including through eligibility and enrollment verification, as he stated it. ABC News framed the appearance as coming amid turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Kennedy faced pointed questioning from Democratic senators, as ABC reported it.
Why it matters
The hearing is Kennedy’s fullest on-the-record defense of the administration’s 2026 health agenda before the committee of jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid — the programs at the center of his department’s spending and reform files.
Scoreboard watch
Scoreboard candidate: the 2026 healthcare-agenda commitments Kennedy stated at this hearing, each as stated in testimony, to be checked against the department’s delivery — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.
Sources: Senate Finance Committee, hearing on the President’s 2026 healthcare agenda with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., September 4, 2025 (full hearing as carried live by ABC News, embedded above).
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