“We’re going to make it much easier for people to get information,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Department of Health and Human Services is planning to revamp its response to public records. According to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We’re trying to post as much as we can. We’re starting our website with all previous FOIA requests and documents created so that people don’t have to do it over and over again.
Kennedy’s department includes 15 departments, including the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
Federal law, Foia requires agencies to respond to requests for information such as email. With a few exceptions, the record should be made at the end.
An HHS employee told the Epoch Times in a January 2024 email that it took a while to adjudicate the March 2023 request for the backlog.
“I appreciate your patience,” the employee wrote at the time.
Kennedy, chairman of the Children’s Health Defense Group before becoming a health secretary, told reporters Tuesday that she had been involved in lawsuits against the agency that allegedly prevented requests made under the FOIA.
“A lot of people at HHS right now… come from that background, so we all understand how important it is to have clear communication,” Kennedy said. “The papers we produce at this institution are not ours. They belong to the American people, and we need to be honest with them.”
