Senator Kim: The Disability Community Should Not be Paying for RFK Jr.’s “Mistakes”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today during a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee hearing , Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) pressed Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a pattern of cuts and actions threatening to leave the disability community without the resources or federal support they need. The Senator pushed Secretary Kennedy to reverse his proposal to zero out dedicated funding for the Limb Loss Resource Center, Paralysis Resource Center, and other programs focused on serving Americans with disabilities, and questioned how Kennedy can be trusted to oversee the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act when he shows such little commitment to supporting the disability community. After outlining all of the disability focused programs Secretary Kennedy has put on the chopping block, Senator Kim made clear: “ These are all programs that are focused on disability, and it worries me that there’s not a prioritization of supporting the disability community…[Meanwhile] there are talks and proposals by this administration to move IDEA from Department of Education to your Department of Health and Human Services. I’ve heard that from the Secretary of Education and others. I’m hearing from a lot of families that are very concerned, profoundly concerned about this kind of shift.” Secretary Kennedy’s concluded his response with: “I don’t know every cut. There’s some we’ve made mistakes on… I’m happy to talk to your office about it.” WATCH AND SHARE SENATOR KIM’S QUESTIONS TO SECRETARY KENNEDY (Share on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , Threads , BlueSky , Substack ) Senator Kim concluded his questions by making sure Secretary Kennedy heard directly from New Jersey’s disability community, sharing: “This is what I heard from these families, and I wanted to share it with you. They say that if you are moving IDEA from the Department of Ed to Health and Human Services, you are defining these young students by their disability, engaging them as patients rather than as students who have the right, as anybody else does, for opportunity. So I just want to point that out, please do not single out these students and these families with disabilities.” This is not the first time Secretary Kennedy has demonstrated a lack of knowledge about programs and cuts at his own agency. In May of last year, Senator Kim confronted Secretary Kennedy about why his agency shut down the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, citing that the registry’s website stated that firefighters were no longer allowed to enroll. In response to the Senator’s questions during the hearing, Secretary Kennedy said: “I don’t know about that,” but committed to working with Senator Kim on the issue. Hours later, the website removed this notice, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the registry was open again. ###