Senator Shelley Moore Capito led a hearing to examine financial priorities for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with several lines of questioning relating to West Virginia issues.

The opening remarks by Capito addressed working with Congress as Kennedy leads a structural reorganization, the importance of ongoing Alzheimer’s research, funding levels for grants aimed at assuaging the opioid crisis and the mission of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Other members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that is focused on labor, health and human services and other areas covered similar territory with their comments and questions.

The Tuesday morning meeting was a budget review with Kennedy testifying on behalf of the agency that he has aimed at making America healthy again.

That goal has come as the Health and Human Services secretary has embarked on a restructuring while proposing an agency funding reduction of 26% for the coming fiscal year.

“HHS has always worked with Congress when considering and designing reorganizations, and I encourage you and your staff to work closely with us as you move forward,” Capito, R-W.Va., told Kennedy.

Capito praised Kennedy for “taking a hard look at what federal research dollars are funding.”

But she also encouraged the agency to “ensure that the fiscal year 2025 funding that Congress has already appropriated is spent in a timely manner, in particular for the biomedical research that could lead to life-saving breakthroughs in science.

“Too many families are waiting for a cure. As you know, we have a responsibility to make sure their taxpayers dollars fund that research.”

On specific issues resonating in West Virginia:

Alzheimer’s research

Capito has been a vocal advocate for Alzheimer’s research and has actively worked to advance legislation aimed at addressing the disease. The senator’s commitment to fighting Alzheimer’s stems from personal experience because she lost both her parents to the disease.

“For almost a decade, this committee has increased funding towards the goal of finding treatments and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. This goal is very personal to me, since both of my parents lived with and eventually succumbed to this horrible disease,” she told Kennedy

Capito said funding for the National Institutes of Health has supported research into a wide variety of potential causes of the disease while also building evidence for prevention based on healthy lifestyles.  She said NIH-funded research of the amyloid protein led to the development and approval of drugs to slow progression of the disease.

“All this research is extremely important, and I look forward to working with you to continue to look at diversified Alzheimer’s research,” Capito said.

Kennedy did not respond directly to those comments but did address Alzheimer’s research in his own opening remarks.

In contrast to Capito’s comments, Kennedy said “Alzheimer’s is a very, very good example of how NIH has gone off the rail over the past 20 years with research on amyloid plaques and cutting off any other hypothesis because of corruption within the agency, and that has derailed Alzheimer’s research in this country for 20 years.

“And I’m committed to solving the problems of Alzheimer’s, also understanding why we’re having an epidemic of Alzheimer’s, why it is increasing.”

NIOSH

After Kennedy’s Health and Human Services agency announced on March 27 a restructuring in line with the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiatives, that resulted in hundreds of reduction in force notifications at the National Institute of Safety and Health agency in Morgantown.

West Virginia’s congressional delegation has described pushing the Trump administration, particularly Kennedy, for the return of jobs at NIOSH.

Last week, Kennedy confirmed the return of 110 workers to various roles at NIOSH in Morgantown. The Respiratory Health Division, Division of Safety Research and National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory were brought back. More than a hundred more workers have not returned.

“While your action last week was a good first step, there are other divisions within NIOSH with specialized staff who conduct essential, unique work,” Capito told Kennedy.

“I support the president’s vision to right size our government, but as you and I have discussed, I do not think eliminating NIOSH programs will accomplish that goal. I encourage you to look closely at all of NIOSH’s offices and bring back additional critical staff.”

The senator’s Democratic counterpart on the committee, Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, went harder at Kennedy on the issue.

“You are cutting programs and firing staff with no plan and no understanding of what the department you are leading even does for the American people, and that’s why you had to rehire staff working on the World Trade Center Health Program and screening coal miners for black lung disease,” Baldwin said.

“You fired everyone — and now you want to take credit for hiring them back? That’s not how this works. Congress provided over $360 million on a bipartisan basis for NIOSH.”

Opioid addiction relief

Significant federal funding sources for opioid treatment resources like the life-saving drug naloxone are in question.

Federal grants that can help states like West Virginia pay for naloxone are from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, often shortened to SAMHSA, and the State Opioid Response (or SOR) that it runs.

The newly-created Administration for a Healthy America under Kennedy is envisioned to combine multiple agencies, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Simultaneously, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has been in line for major spending and staffing cuts. 

“SAMHSA funding has played an important role in West Virginia, and I want to understand how the budget proposal would impact my state. I look forward to learning more about that from you today,” Capito told Kennedy.

“I will say there was a bit of good news, I believe last week, when the national statistics of overdose deaths did go down.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, further explored the issue of federal grant funding meant to alleviate the opioid crisis. “For too many families, this isn’t just a daily heartbreak because they’ve lost people they love,” she said.

Shaheen said resources available through the State Opioid Response have helped save lives through the availability of naloxone or prevention and recovery programs.

“Now your budget proposes eliminating SAMHSA entirely and consolidating critical substance use and mental health block grants under a vague framework that’s not at all clear to me,” Shaheen told Kennedy.

Kennedy responded that his family has dealt with opioid addiction, that naloxone is a key part of averting overdose deaths and that he is especially interested in community care programs.

Shaheen the State Opioid Response grants go toward the very kinds of programs that Kennedy was advocating. “And so that’s why I’m so troubled by the idea that you would eliminate the entity that makes those grants available,” she said.

Senator,” Kennedy replied, “we support 500 community care facilities around the country. We’re going to continue to do that, and we will continue to support the most effective ways of ending the opioid. And we have not done a good job at that in the past. You can do a lot better. There is we need outcome based care.”

Shaheen wanted a direct answer. “But you won’t commit to preserving the State Opioid Response grants?”

Kennedy responded, “I have to look at that, that particular grant, but if it’s working, we want to support it.”