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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to question HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in committee hearing

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to question HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in committee hearing
God bless all of you for coming. It's nice to have hot weather better than cold, but thank you for Honoring our president, but more importantly, thank you for honoring the United States of America as we join this opportunity to be with President Trump to kick off America 250. We're once again 1st in the nation, just like every 4 years we're 1st in the nation. You know, uh, Tomorrow will be 249. Years since 56 Americans signed the Declaration of Independence. By signing that document. They were traitors to King George III, but they're what you and I would honor as freedom fighters. They knew at that time. that King George III was going to restrict their freedoms. Couldn't do in the colonies. What every other British person could do in London and the British Isles. He was restricting their freedoms. And that's why they said in the Declaration of Independence, we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By saying we're endowed by our Creator. We get our rights and freedoms from God. We don't get them. We don't get them from the government. And we know that 13 years later, They wrote the Constitution. The Constitution doesn't say what our rights are except in the Bill of Rights, but that's just *** few of the rights that were guaranteed by God. What it said was, That we write this Constitution to protect the American people from their government, and it still serves that purpose. And I hope that we appreciate that in America. You know, people of the left. get irritated when we talk about the United States being an exceptional nation. It doesn't mean that we're better than any people anyplace else, but it does mean we're an exception nation from the fact that we get our rights. From God we don't get our rights from the government, and it's the only society in 6000 years of humankind that has ever had that relationship between the government and the American people, and what we're honoring for the next year is the preservation of that. State in the Declaration of Independence, we're endowed by our Creator with certain idiom or rights. And we're going to emphasize that for the next year and honor it as we traditionally do. I I would like to comment just *** short period of time about The one. Big beautiful bill. I was happy to stay up 27 hours to see that through to its finality. It's *** bill that makes sure we don't get the biggest tax increase in the history of the country, and for all the Democrats that voted against it, they were voting to have the biggest tax increase in the history of the country. It strengthens our national defense tremendously. It fights we forced and waste, fraud and abuse. Now you get tired of us using those terms, but I think we've proven through many studies that that's just exactly what happens when government isn't proceeding the way it should. And I thought I would take just *** minute to tell you what my contribution to the big Beautiful bill Because I'm chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and immigration comes under our responsibilities, so we're going to finish the wall. We're going to we're going to add tremendously to the number of people patrolling that border, but more importantly, the number of people that are going to enforce the immigration laws interior, not just at the border. And then we And then we're going to have built *** tremendous number of detention facilities so we can keep people that have come here on the terrorist watch list, come here with criminal records, come here as human traffickers, sex traffickers. And peddling fit now to our young people, we're going to make sure that they aren't walking the street. We're also going to make sure that sanctuary cities are not *** haven for those types of people. So if I had to sum up what the Judiciary Committee did that I have the pleasure of chairing, it's going to make America safe again. I leave you, I leave you with one last point. That I don't think gets the attention it should and it doesn't have to have any attention, but I'm going to make sure as chairman of this committee by listening to whistleblowers getting documents that are been kept from Congress of the United States, I'm going to make sure that everybody is exposed and the documents prove it for the 8 years. The 8 years that the opposition was trying to put President Trump in prison. What What we're doing. Whether we had Republican or Democrat administrations over my years in the United States Congress, this president and his appointees to the Department of Justice and the FBI has given us the first real cooperation. That we should have had under both Republican and Democratic presidents before, but it was just obfuscate and cover up and not let the truth out because it's going to be embarrassing. So we're getting some whistleblowers their jobs back. We are releasing documents because I want everybody who had anything to do since President Trump went down that golden elevator in 2015 have been trying to get him out of the presidency or when he was out of the. Getting into prison. We don't have to put up with that in America. President Trump hasn't put it in America, and I want to thank President Trump and his administration for helping me make this stuff more transparent and and never see that it happens again. Thank you.
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Updated: 3:05 PM CDT Sep 3, 2025
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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to question HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in committee hearing
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Updated: 3:05 PM CDT Sep 3, 2025
Editorial Standards
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he plans to follow up with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Thursday Senate Finance Committee hearing about his commitments to issues like regulating pharmacy benefit managers, improving rural health care systems and oversight of agriculture and dietary guidelines.When Kennedy faced questions from senators on the committee during the confirmation process in January, Grassley presented him a list of statements on what he expects from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These included calling for Kennedy to “leave agricultural practice regulations to the proper agencies,” provide timely and complete information when responding to congressional oversight requests and work to lower drug prices through measures targeting business practices of PBMs, the entities that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug manufacturers, pharmacies and health insurance companies.Video above: America250 in Des Moines: Sen. Chuck Grassley says 'big beautiful bill' makes 'America safe again'Grassley presented his expectations to Kennedy and asked him if he agreed or disagreed with the statements — all of which Kennedy said he agreed with in January. During a call with reporters Tuesday, Grassley said he plans to follow up on these expectations at the hearing.“Now he’s been in office for five or six months, I’m thinking that maybe I ought to go back and say, ‘this is what you told me in January or February, whenever it was — do you still think you told me the right thing?’ And, ‘are you doing what you told me you would do?'” Grassley said.The Iowa Republican also said there are many other issues he hopes to hear about from Kennedy at the hearing tomorrow, saying “he still has some attitudes about agriculture that I’m interested in getting further readout.”Kennedy’s appearance before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday follows major leadership changes in the federal government’s public health centers. President Donald Trump fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez in late August, and several other high-level CDC officials resigned shortly after. As HHS secretary, Kennedy is involved in overseeing the CDC.Both Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress have called for answers and investigations into the HHS and related public health entities following the shake-up, and have also brought up concerns about the administration’s current approach to subjects like vaccinations. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said last week “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.” He also called for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to indefinitely postpone its September meeting as “serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting.”According to the Des Moines Register, Grassley told reporters Aug. 29 he believes decisions made by public health officials and scientists on vaccines “should not be a political determination.”“He’s got some changes he wants to make in vaccines,” Grassley said at an Indianola event. “I don’t think it’s quite fair to say he’s anti-vaccine, but he’s got some changes he wants to make. I think we need more direction where he’s headed for.” Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he plans to follow up with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Thursday Senate Finance Committee hearing about his commitments to issues like regulating pharmacy benefit managers, improving rural health care systems and oversight of agriculture and dietary guidelines.

When Kennedy faced questions from senators on the committee during the in January, Grassley presented him a list of statements on what he expects from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These included calling for Kennedy to “leave agricultural practice regulations to the proper agencies,” provide timely and complete information when responding to congressional oversight requests and work to lower drug prices through measures targeting business practices of PBMs, the entities that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug manufacturers, pharmacies and health insurance companies.

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Video above: America250 in Des Moines: Sen. Chuck Grassley says 'big beautiful bill' makes 'America safe again'

Grassley presented his expectations to Kennedy and asked him if he agreed or disagreed with the statements — all of which Kennedy said he agreed with in January.

During a call with reporters Tuesday, Grassley said he plans to follow up on these expectations at the hearing.

“Now he’s been in office for five or six months, I’m thinking that maybe I ought to go back and say, ‘this is what you told me in January or February, whenever it was — do you still think you told me the right thing?’ And, ‘are you doing what you told me you would do?'” Grassley said.

The Iowa Republican also said there are many other issues he hopes to hear about from Kennedy at the hearing tomorrow, saying “he still has some attitudes about agriculture that I’m interested in getting further readout.”

Kennedy’s appearance before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday follows major leadership changes in the federal government’s public health centers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez in late August, and several other high-level CDC officials resigned shortly after. As HHS secretary, Kennedy is involved in overseeing the CDC.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress answers and investigations into the HHS and related public health entities following the shake-up, and have also brought up concerns about the administration’s current approach to subjects like vaccinations. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.” He also called for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to indefinitely postpone its September meeting as “serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting.”

According to , Grassley told reporters Aug. 29 he believes decisions made by public health officials and scientists on vaccines “should not be a political determination.”

“He’s got some changes he wants to make in vaccines,” Grassley said at an Indianola event. “I don’t think it’s quite fair to say he’s anti-vaccine, but he’s got some changes he wants to make. I think we need more direction where he’s headed for.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.