Kennedy Moves to Purge U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, told lawmakers at a Senate Finance Committee hearing that he intends to dismantle and reconstruct the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the federal committee responsible for recommending disease screening tests such as mammograms and colonoscopies and determining insurance coverage for preventive care. Kennedy called the existing committee “lackadaisical and negligent” and stated he would recruit new members, though he did not clarify whether he would fire current members or simply expand the panel. This effort follows Kennedy’s earlier purge of a CDC vaccine advisory panel, where he removed existing members and appointed his own replacements until a judge blocked those appointments.
Kennedy claimed the current task force lacks adequate representation from medical specialties including anesthesiologists and oncologists, and said the Department of Health and Human Services is now soliciting nominations and applications for new members. He also pledged to increase transparency in task force meetings but admitted he has “not done a good job” rescheduling meetings that were postponed indefinitely last year. Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, himself a physician, questioned whether Kennedy had a concrete reform plan, while Kennedy provided no specific timeline or methodology for restructuring the committee.
At the hearing, Democratic Senator Christine Smith of Minnesota pressed Kennedy on Medicaid cuts included in the Trump administration’s tax bill, noting the reductions in funding for breast cancer screenings and other preventive health programs. Kennedy falsely denied that legally enrolled Medicaid beneficiaries were losing coverage and, without evidence, attributed Medicaid cuts to health care fraud. He and Republican lawmakers repeated unsubstantiated claims about fraud but provided no documentation supporting the assertion.
The task force restructuring represents an abuse of power over an independent scientific body that provides guidance to physicians and insurance companies nationwide. Kennedy’s history of dismantling expert-led health committees and replacing them with ideologically aligned appointees signals an effort to subordinate public health recommendations to disinformation about vaccines and screening protocols. The blocking of his previous vaccine panel appointments by federal court demonstrates legal recognition of such overreach.
