By Ahmed Aboulenein, Julie Steenhuysen and Michael Erman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking to eliminate public participation in many of his department’s policy decisions, a move that appears to contradict his pledge to Congress of “radical transparency.”
In a document posted on Friday in the Federal Register, HHS announced plans to rescind its decades-long practice of allowing public comment on a range of agency actions.
The proposal marks a shift in the rulemaking process at HHS, which directs $3 trillion in healthcare spending and oversees high-profile agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and programs like Medicare and Medicaid that provide health insurance for over 140 million people.
Set for formal publication on March 3, the proposal would strip the public’s ability to submit feedback on decisions related to agency management, personnel, public property, loans and grants, benefits, and contracts.
It also grants HHS the discretion to bypass public input when it deems the process “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.”
The move effectively ends a policy that had been in place since 1971 that allowed public comment on issues where it was not mandated by law.
HHS said the policy had imposed unnecessary procedural burdens and limited its ability to respond efficiently to legal and policy mandates.
HHS in the document said the public comment obligations “impose costs on the Department and the public, are contrary to the efficient operation of the Department, and impede the Department’s flexibility to adapt quickly to legal and policy mandates.”
Under the revised approach, HHS agencies would retain discretion to seek public input but would no longer be required to do so unless otherwise mandated by law.
Critics in the past have suggested that industry has used the public comment process to delay regulations. For example, in a 2016 essay, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, pointed to a years-long delay in regulations to revamp food safety as spelled out in the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
The move comes during significant upheaval at federal health agencies, including mass terminations at the CDC, FDA, and NIH.
It also raises questions about how Kennedy will reconcile the policy shift with his repeated promises during his Senate confirmation hearings to make HHS more open and accessible.
Earlier on Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives demanded answers from Kennedy on the exact number of employees fired from health agencies.
HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
‘DEEPLY CONCERNING’
Some experts saw merit in the decision. Dan Troy, Former FDA chief counsel under President George W. Bush, argued that while public participation has value, rulemaking has become “extremely time-consuming, expensive, and sclerotic.” The decision might improve efficiency, he said.
For the most part, however, criticism of Kennedy’s decision was swift, with public health experts, patient advocates, and legal scholars raising concerns about transparency and accountability.
Sue Peschin, president of the Alliance for Aging Research, called the decision “deeply concerning,” arguing that public participation has historically improved policy effectiveness and health outcomes.
Limiting public input could lead to policy decisions that fail to reflect real-world concerns, said Carmel Shachar of Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. Agencies like HHS have historically revised rules based on public feedback, she said.
Eliminating notice and comment could erode public trust and weaken judicial oversight, warned Georgetown Law Professor Lawrence Gostin.
“Pushing HHS toward secrecy undermines decades of rulemaking transparency,” he said, adding that it aligns with the Trump administration’s broader efforts to consolidate executive power.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, and Michael Erman in New York, Additional reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Bill Berkrot)
