2026年4月16日 / 美国东部时间下午6:58 / 美联社
美国卫生与公众服务部部长罗伯特·F·肯尼迪 Jr. 周四时隔九个月首次面对联邦议员，为其部门逾12%的预算削减提议辩护，并在此过程中避开了愤怒的民主党人的攻击。
在众议院筹款委员会的作证中，肯尼迪开启了预计将持续一周的密集预算听证行程——接下来一周他将在国会各委员会及小组委员会参加七场听证会。他在作证中强调了本届政府改革膳食指南以及打击浪费、欺诈和滥用职权的工作。
委员会内的共和党人称赞肯尼迪是“一股清新空气”，并请他介绍本部门近期的行动。此前因肯尼迪全面 overhaul 美国卫生与公众服务部而愤怒不已的民主党人则大多另有议程。
他们指责肯尼迪政府在欺诈问题上的虚伪，质问他为何削减多个项目的预算，并抨击他撤回疫苗推荐和相关信息的举措，称这些做法导致了不必要的死亡。
肯尼迪予以回击，他时常提高嗓门，指责民主党人歪曲他的工作和过往言论。
以下是周四听证会中三个引人注目的时刻。
麻疹问题陷入僵局
听证会初期，肯尼迪与众议员琳达·桑切斯之间爆发了激烈交锋。这位来自加利福尼亚州的民主党议员谴责美国各地近期暴发的麻疹疫情，并质问肯尼迪，在他的领导下，美国疾病控制与预防中心撤回了支持疫苗接种的公共卫生信息，该如何为此负责。
“作为一名母亲，这让我感到恐惧，”桑切斯说，“特朗普总统是否批准了你终止疾控中心支持疫苗接种的公共宣传活动的决定？”
肯尼迪多次拒绝回答，先是表示他想先回应“你做出的不实陈述”，随后称赞特朗普政府在预防麻疹方面的成绩，尽管随着疫苗接种率下降，美国部分地区对这种疾病的防护能力已经减弱。
“这没有回答我的问题，”桑切斯说道，两人互相抢话。
不过，桑切斯也让这位从政前长期反对疫苗的肯尼迪承认，去年在西德克萨斯州死于麻疹的一名6岁儿童本有可能通过接种疫苗获救。
“你是否认同大多数医生的观点，即麻疹疫苗本可以挽救那个德克萨斯州孩子的生命？”她问道。
“当然有可能，”肯尼迪说。
罗伯特·F·肯尼迪 Jr. 否认曾谈论将黑人儿童“重新养育”
当肯尼迪激烈否认自己2024年曾发表过相关言论时，他与来自阿拉巴马州的民主党众议员泰瑞·休厄尔之间爆发了争执。
这些言论可以追溯到肯尼迪作为总统候选人时期。去年7月，他在“高层对话”播客中称：“精神科药物——现在每个黑人孩子都被常规开具阿德拉、选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂、苯二氮䓬类药物，这些药物已知会引发暴力，这些孩子将有机会去某个地方，接受‘重新养育’，生活在一个没有手机、没有屏幕的社区里，你必须真正和他人交流。”
休厄尔的助手展示了一段精简版引述的海报，她问道：“你是否曾经‘重新养育’过，或者说，养育过一名黑人儿童？”
“我甚至都不知道这个短语是什么意思，”肯尼迪说，“我不会为我没说过的话做出回应。”
“你在编造东西，”他随后声称。
播客的录音显示，这些言论是在他当时提议在美国农村地区开设免费康复设施的对话中说出的。
卫生与公众服务部发言人艾米丽·希利亚德表示，肯尼迪在加入政府之前所指的是为面临疏离、心理健康挑战和绝望的年轻人提供重新养育的空间，她称这是一个心理学术语，意为“培养可能在童年时期未建立起来的情绪调节能力、自律、边界感和自我价值”。
与民主党人的激烈交锋
肯尼迪一生大部分时间都是民主党人，是美国最著名政治家族之一的后裔。听证会期间，共和党人和民主党人在发言伊始都表达了对肯尼迪亲属的钦佩，其中包括前总统约翰·F·肯尼迪。
但在周四的听证会上，肯尼迪与他曾所属政党之间的关系裂痕再次充分显现，双方互相发表充满恶意的言论。
这位卫生部长变得戒备心十足，明显情绪激动。他多次批评民主党议员不让他把话说完。
“他们都不让我开口，”肯尼迪某一刻说道，“他们发表一段可以用来筹款造势的演讲，却不让我回答问题。”
仅有少数几次交流是文明的。来自威斯康星州的众议员格温·摩尔用幽默化解了紧张气氛。
“如果你不对我大喊大叫、不伤害我的感情，我保证会问你简单、轻松的问题，”她对肯尼迪说。他承诺不会那样做。
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-science-behind-the-peptide-craze/
RFK Jr. defends proposed 12% health budget cut, measles response in House testimony
April 16, 2026 / 6:58 PM EDT / AP
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced federal lawmakers for the first time since September as he sought to defend a more than 12% proposed cut to his department’s budget and dodge arrows from angry Democrats along the way.
In his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, kicking off an expected sprint of seven budget hearings he’ll attend across congressional committees and subcommittees over the next week, Kennedy emphasized the administration’s work to reform dietary guidelines and crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.
Republicans on the committee praised Kennedy as a “breath of fresh air” and asked him to promote his department’s recent actions. Democrats, who have been furious over Kennedy’s sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, largely had a different agenda.
They needled Kennedy on what they viewed as the Trump administration’s hypocrisy on fraud, demanded to know why he was cutting budgets for various programs and slammed his efforts to pull back vaccine recommendations and messaging, which they said have caused unnecessary deaths.
Kennedy fired back, often raising his voice as he accused the Democrats of misrepresenting his work and past statements.
Here are three standout moments from Thursday’s hearing.
A standoff over measles
One heated exchange early in the hearing came between Kennedy and Rep. Linda Sanchez. The California Democrat decried recent measles outbreaks across the U.S. and asked Kennedy to answer for the fact that under his leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled back public health messaging supporting vaccination.
“As a mother, this horrifies me,” Sanchez said. “Did President Trump approve your decision to end CDC’s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?”
Kennedy repeatedly refused to answer, saying first he wanted to respond to the “misstatements that you’ve made” and later praising the Trump administration’s record on preventing measles, although protections against the disease have eroded in some parts of the country as vaccination rates have dropped.
“That’s not answering my question,” Sanchez said as the two talked over each other.
But Sanchez also got Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, to acknowledge that a 6-year-old who died of measles last year in West Texas could have potentially been saved with vaccination.
“Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child’s life in Texas?” she asked.
“It’s possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.
RFK Jr. denies talking about Black children being “re-parented”
A fight erupted between Kennedy and Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, when Kennedy vehemently denied making remarks he’d said in 2024.
The comments dated back to when Kennedy was a presidential candidate. On the “High Level Conversations” podcast last July, he said, “Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens, you’ll actually have to talk to people.”
“Have you ever re-parented, or parented, I should say, a Black child?” Sewell asked, as her staff held up a poster featuring an abbreviated version of the quote.
“I don’t even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said. “I’m not going to answer something I didn’t say.”
“You’re making stuff up,” he later claimed.
A recording of the podcast shows he made the comments during a conversation about free rehabilitation facilities he was proposing opening at the time in rural areas around the country.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy before joining the administration was referring to spaces where young people facing alienation, mental health challenges and despair could get re-parented, which she said was a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”
Heated exchanges with Democrats
Kennedy spent most of his life as a Democrat, the scion of one of the nation’s most famous political families. Both Republicans and Democrats during the hearing began their remarks by expressing their admiration of Kennedy’s relatives, among them former President John F. Kennedy.
But again and again throughout Thursday’s hearing, the fraying of bonds between Kennedy and his former party was on full display as spiteful comments were passed back and forth.
The health secretary grew defensive and visibly agitated. He repeatedly criticized Democratic lawmakers for not giving him a word in edgewise.
“They’ve all shut me up,” Kennedy said at one point. “They give a little speech that they can go and market, you know, for fundraising, and they don’t allow me to answer the question.”
On a few rare occasions, the exchanges were civil. One representative, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, used humor to make that happen.
“I promise to give you easy, comfortable questions if you don’t yell at me and hurt my feelings,” she told Kennedy. He promised he wouldn’t.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-science-behind-the-peptide-craze/
