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** RFK Jr. Denies Cuts to Scientific Research While Slashing Staff, Funding
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The Department of Health and Human Services has been shedding staff, including scientists, while cutting billions of dollars in grants for scientific studies. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cast the cuts as inconsequential for scientific research.

“We are not abandoning any life-saving research,” Kennedy said at a May 20 Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing, responding to a question on cuts to grants.

In fact, funding for research on a variety of potentially lethal or life-altering conditions has been terminated, including studies into infectious disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and more.

Research that is “life-saving” has “almost certainly” been halted, given the large number of grant terminations, former National Institute of General Medical Sciences Director Jeremy Berg, now at the University of Pittsburgh, told ([link removed]) Staff Writer Kate Yandell in an email. She also exchanged emails with two researchers from Harvard University whose labs’ projects on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, were cut.

At a May 14 Senate hearing, Kennedy also minimized the impact of HHS staffing cuts on the scientific endeavor.

“I didn’t fire any working scientist, senator,” he told Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat from Maryland. At other times in the hearing, he attempted to narrowly define “working scientists” or specified a particular round of cuts that he claimed did not include these scientists.

Regardless, news reports and Kate’s interviews with past and current HHS employees show that scientists have been let go from multiple agencies at HHS.

The loss of other staff members also has negatively affected the abilities of workers remaining at HHS to fulfill their roles, according to news reports.

Kennedy also claimed that certain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs had not been cut and were instead being moved, even after sending reduction in force notices to their staffs.

“The majority of our staff are scientists and front line public health professionals,” scientist Erik Svendsen, who is on administrative leave from his position as director of the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, told Kate in a message. “The rest support us in critical ways.” His CDC division, which has been behind investigations into problems such as illness on cruise ships and lead-tainted children’s food, was included in the reduction in force.

For more, read the full story: “RFK Jr. Denies Cuts to Scientific Research While Slashing Staff, Funding ([link removed]) .”
HOW WE KNOW
When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the House reconciliation bill “does not add to the deficit” and other Republicans questioned a Congressional Budget Office analysis, we turned to other estimates, from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget ([link removed]) , Penn Wharton Budget Model ([link removed]) and the Tax Foundation ([link removed]) . All found the bill would add to the deficit. Two “dynamic” analyses, which consider economic growth, estimated a $1.7 trillion or $3.2 trillion increase over 10 years. Read more: “Checking the Math on White House, GOP Claims About ‘Big Beautiful Bill ([link removed]) .’”
FEATURED FACTS
Fourteen states, plus Washington, D.C., use state taxpayer money to provide health insurance for children regardless of immigration status, according to the health policy research group KFF. Seven of those states and D.C. also cover some adults regardless of immigration status. The House reconciliation bill would reduce federal funding to states with such state-funded health programs, resulting in 1.4 million people losing coverage in 2034, according to a preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis. Read more: “A False Claim About Illegal Immigration and Medicaid. ([link removed]) ”
REPLY ALL

Reader: Multiple social media posts say President Trump is targeting Harvard and other universities because they rejected Barron Trump's application. True?

FactCheck.org Director Lori Robertson responds: Several readers have asked about these social media rumors about President Donald Trump's son Barron and Harvard. First Lady Melania Trump's office issued a statement this week in response to them. The short answer is "no." Barron Trump didn't even apply to Harvard, the first lady's office said.

"Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false," Nick Clemens, spokesperson for the Office of the First Lady, said ([link removed]) in a statement that was reported ([link removed]) by several ([link removed]) news organizations.

Barron Trump attends ([link removed]) New York University.

Snopes wrote ([link removed]) about these claims in April, saying there was "no evidence" for them and noting that Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island had suggested in mid-April social media posts that a Trump family member had been rejected by the Ivy League university. "Can’t help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard," Whitehouse wrote ([link removed]) .

In an ongoing battle with Harvard, the Trump administration has withheld ([link removed]) federal grants and contracts from the university, and threatened ([link removed]) to cut off its ability to enroll foreign students, prompting lawsuits from Harvard. In an April 11 letter ([link removed]) to Harvard, the administration made several demands of the university, saying Harvard had "in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment."


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* Trump Administration Incorrectly Claims Certainty About Origin of Coronavirus ([link removed])
Since regaining power in January, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed with false certainty that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a lab. But there isn’t clear evidence that the virus came from a lab. A new government website promoting the claim also gets some basic facts wrong.

* Pro-Trump TV Ad Overstates His Second-Term Economic Record ([link removed])
A TV ad from a group supportive of President Donald Trump makes misleading claims, and uses outdated data, to argue that he is “fixing” an economy “ruined” by Democrats.

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