Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubled down on his stance that autism is an “epidemic” during a recent Senate committee hearing.

He argued that there is too much focus on the genetic causes and not enough research being done on environmental factors like toxins. Kennedy even went as far as to say no further research should be funded on the genetic links to autism.

“Over the past 20 years at NIH, if you ask me, they did not want to look at the environmental exposures because they were scared of what they found,” the HHS Secretary said. “So I don’t think we should be funding that genetic work anymore.”

So far in 2025, the Trump administration has cut funding for autism-related research by 26%, Reuters reports.

Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) praised Kennedy for his work in building an autism database and questioned the HHS secretary about its privacy and the opt-in or opt-out premise.

“It’s entirely voluntary. Patient privacy is protected. The data is digitized and depersonalized so that people can’t find out who the patient is, and patients have an absolute right to opt out of it,” Kennedy explained. “It’s entirely voluntary, but a very important tool for scientists to use who want to understand how to treat diseases. If there are a number of people who’ve used, for example, chelation therapies on autism, you can look at that.”

Chelation therapy is a method of using chemicals to remove heavy metal toxins from the body. Research from the National Institute of Health has determined “no clinical trial evidence was found to suggest that pharmaceutical chelation is an effective intervention for [autism spectrum disorder].”

The HHS Secretary also faced a series of questions from Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) over his choice of David Geier, an HHS data analyst chosen to lead research about vaccines and autism. Geier has been criticized by autism groups for performing unproven medical treatments on children with autism and for promoting disproven health conspiracies.

Hassan also repeatedly pointed out that Geier is not a physician or a scientist.

The secretary denied that Geier is overseeing any autism research, despite appointing him to it.

“David Geier is not in autism research,” Kennedy said. “So what you’re saying is just wrong. I t’s just a lie.”

Consolidation efforts

While defending his department’s FY26 budget, ripe with billions of dollars in widely criticized cuts, he stood firm on the point that the cuts were more about “consolidation” and restoring fiscal responsibility.

“We will consolidate programs to better tackle mental health and addiction,” Kennedy said. “These issues now rival chronic disease and their impact. HHS will aggressively combat the opioid crisis, especially the spread of synthetic drugs like fentanyl.”

So far, the cuts have impacted 10,000 full-time employees and the downsizing or consolidation of agencies like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In total, the reductions, touted by the administration as restructuring, result in downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees for HHS. The proposed FY26 budget suggests cutting over $28.6 billion in health care and mental health-related spending.

Although Kennedy suggested that tackling the opioid crisis and addiction is a priority for his agency, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) criticized this.

“We can’t be cutting the programs for the people who are already suffering from opioid-related diseases. We can’t cut the progress,” Markey said. “Why would we cut $1 billion from the programs that go to the families that have substance abuse issues right now?”

Kennedy asserted that most programs that support addiction, Suboxone, Narcan and methadone treatments are going to be intact, and noted that the agency is “doing more with less.”

“What I’m doing at my agency is I’m realigning all of these first incentives… I’m realigning so that people can make money in this country and markets can make money,” Kennedy said.