US Department of Health and Human Services

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced federal lawmakers for the first time since September as he sought to defend a more than 12% proposed cut to his department's budget and dodge arrows from angry Democrats along the way. One fight erupted between Kennedy and Alabama Democratic Representative Terri Sewell over comments he made in 2024 about Black children.

Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study, has died. He was 86. Buxtun was also a key interview in Alabama Public Radio’s national award-winning investigation of rural health in the State, which focused in part on the twentieth anniversary of President Bill Clinton’s apology for the study.

State health officials say a federal facility in Alabama is being considered as a “backup” location for Americans infected by the virus known as COVID-19.…