From PBS NewsHour.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., confronted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., about cuts to a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that monitored lead poisoning in children Wednesday.

Congress had approved $51 million for the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, but after the Trump administration’s cuts, Baldwin said no one could help Milwaukee schoolchildren when concerns emerged over lead in their drinking water. It was not because the CDC staff did not know what to do, Baldwin said, adding: “It’s because you fired the entire team whose job it is to support communities like Milwaukee.”

“You cannot tell us that you want to make America healthy again when you are willfully destroying programs that keep children safe and healthy from lead poisoning,” Baldwin said to Kennedy during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

In late March, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a plan to cut 20,000 jobs amid a major restructuring of the agency. For fiscal year 2026, the Trump administration has proposed a $94 billion budget for the HHS, reducing the department’s 2025 budget by more than a quarter.

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