Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, applauded Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to Make America Healthy Again at the subcommittee hearing, “A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Department of Health and Human Services”. Highlights of Senator Mullin’s exchange on a range of topics, including wasteful NIH funding, are below.
The full exchange can be found here.
On America’s health crisis:
Sen. Mullin: “Earlier, you said… HHS over the last four years had increased by 38% is that correct?”
Sec. Kennedy: “That’s right, Senator Mullin.”
Sen. Mullin: “So, what has the taxpayers got in return over the last four years?
Sec. Kennedy: “They got a worse chronic health crisis and the unhealthiest, sickest, population in the globe.”
On the increase of the HHS budget in recent years:
Sen. Mullin: “So, your total budget for 2024, I think, was around $1.7 trillion. Is that correct?”
Sec. Kennedy: “Yes.”
Sen. Mullin: “So, we’ve had a 10% increase across that, we’ve received nothing in return?”
Sec. Kennedy: “We’ve had a 38% increase in four years with nothing in return.”
On wasteful NIH funds:
Sen. Mullin: “And we have my Democrat colleagues that are complaining about cutting spending at the same time we have NIH recipients, because we’ve heard our colleagues on the left side really complain about you cutting NIH funding, because they call it research, but is it really research? I mean, let me just throw some numbers out here for you. Harvard received $488 million in NIH, and 69% went to indirect costs, meaning didn’t go to research. Yale received $646 million and 67.5% of their NIH money went to indirect costs, meaning didn’t go to research.”
Sen. Mullin: “You have Johns Hopkins University got $858 million 67.5% went to indirect costs, meaning 67.5% of $858 million did not go to research. University of California, San Francisco received $815 million in NIH money and 59% went to indirect costs. But I’m sure there’s no room to cut NIH money for research? I mean, who would think we probably have room for that?”
Sec. Kennedy: “There’s room to cut the research both through the indirect cost, which the total cost was $9 billion last year in indirect. So that’s, you know, that’s $9 billion that did not go to research.”
Sen. Mullin: “$9 billion that went to other things, like flowers at the University President’s house.”
On Secretary Kennedy’s work to Make America Healthy Again:
Sen. Mullin: “You know, only in the American government do we think throwing money at the problem will eventually fix it. So, thank you for staying strong and actually getting the taxpayers the money that they spent for something that it’s supposed to be spent for, and that’s to make us healthier, so thank you for being strong in this.”
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