, President-elect Donald Trump’s the Department of Health and Human Services, is coming into the nomination process in an unusual position, with a long list of separate from the president-elect’s, and a public promise by Trump to let him “go wild” on his ideas. This article also ran on . , the editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and a CBS News medical contributor, answers questions below about the role Kennedy has been tapped to take on and some of the ideas in the sweeping “Make America Healthy Again” platform he may try to push through.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comprises several agencies and offices including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Office of the Surgeon General, and much more.
There is a big difference between political appointees and career civil servants. Political appointees set strategic priorities and align their department or agency’s policies with the current administration’s objectives. Civil servants have the institutional knowledge to know how to get things done and have specialized scientific or technical expertise.
Scientific questions require specialized expertise. This is why there are who advise the HHS secretary, NIH director, CDC director, and FDA commissioner. The HHS secretary has the authority to establish regulations that govern health, including food and .