A House Energy & Commerce’s Health subcommittee came to a brief halt on Tuesday as the Republican chair asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to retract his accusations that a Democratic member’s stance on vaccines was influenced by campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies.
Kennedy appeared before the subcommittee to defend the Trump administration’s budget request, which includes steep cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, used his time to blast the firings at HHS and the apparent lack of transparency under Kennedy’s tenure so far. He and other Democrats said many of their letters to HHS have gone unanswered, with Pallone counting 10 of his letters receiving no response.
The congressman said this lack of transparency extended to Kennedy’s changes to the federal vaccine approval process.
“You have made a number of major decisions about vaccines. And I you know, again, there’s been no public comment process or public accountability on that either. What are you afraid of?” Pallone asked Kennedy.
“I mean, with regard to vaccines, are you just afraid of receiving public comments on proposals where you just think these are fringe views that are contrary to the views of most scientists?”
“The bottom line is here, we have no transparency. We have no response. You feel no responsibility to Congress whatsoever, and you just continue this ideology that’s anti science, anti vaccine. That’s all I see. I see nothing else,” added Pallone.
The questioning then moved on to Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the health committee, who asked Kennedy how he planned to restore public trust in health institutions. With only a brief response to Dunn’s question, Kennedy quickly returned his focus to Pallone’s criticisms.
“Congressman Pallone, 15 years ago, you and I met. You were, at that time, a champion of people who had suffered injuries from vaccines. You were very adamant about it. You were the leading member of Congress on that issue,” said Kennedy.
“Since then, you’ve accepted $2 million from pharmaceutical companies in contributions, more than any other member of this committee,” he continued. “And your enthusiasm for supporting the old [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices], which was completely rife and pervasive with pharmaceutical conflicts, seems to be an outcome of those contributions.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), ranking member of the health subcommittee, immediately raised a point order, saying Kennedy was “impugning Mr. Pallone.”
Health subcommittee Chair Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) asked that the clock be paused. After a brief back and forth with committee members and staffers, he acknowledged it was a valid point of order and asked Kennedy to retract his remarks about Pallone.
Kennedy retracted his words.
According to Open Secrets, Pallone has received roughly $2.2 million from the pharmaceutical/health products industry since 1988 when he first joined Congress.
Kennedy was likely referring to Pallone having previously raised concerns in the 90s about the presence of mercury in products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In 1997, Pallone added an amendment to the FDA reauthorization bill at the time that directed the agency to compile a list of foods and drugs that contain “intentionally introduced mercury compounds.” Mercury exposure and poisoning have long been issues of concern for Pallone’s district.
Kennedy and other vaccine skeptics have long pointed to thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines, as a potential cause for harm. Though studies have backed the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines, the preservative was removed from almost childhood vaccines a few decades ago as a precautionary measure due to public uncertainty.
