RFK Jr. heading to Capitol Hill next week for meetings ahead of confirmation hearings
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is set to head to Capitol Hill next week for meetings with multiple senators, Kennedy’s spokesperson says.
Kennedy transition spokesperson Katie Miller told ABC News that Kennedy will be on the Hill for four consecutive days for marathon meetings as Kennedy works to shore up support ahead of Senate confirmation hearings.
The meetings, which are typical before confirmation hearings, are planned for Dec. 16, 17, 18, and 19.
That includes a meeting on Dec. 19 with Republican staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, according to a separate person familiar with the plans.
Kennedy, a longtime environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic, founded and has drawn a salary from the Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned against immunizations and other public health measures like water fluoridation. Some medical experts have expressed concerns about Kennedy contributing to a rise in medical misinformation.
HHS oversees major federal health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, among others.
(NEW YORK) — The college financial aid application used by millions of American families is now officially open for the 2025-2026 school year — 10 days ahead of schedule.
Top officials from the Department of Education said on a call with reporters Thursday they’re “confident” in this year’s FAFSA form after the botched rollout of a new form last year led to delays and glitches for students seeking financial aid.
What do I need to know about applying for financial aid?
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form is the main gateway for students and their families to qualify for financial aid through the federal government. It helps determine access to aid packages from colleges and universities, Pell grants and other loans.
The first step is for students and their parents to create an FSA ID, which can take several days to be approved. The application itself should then take about 15 minutes to complete, Department of Education officials estimated to ABC News. Though last year officials were overly optimistic about the timeline to fill out the form.
Most of the information required on the application are basic questions like your name, address and schools you are interested in attending, officials said.
The FAFSA must be completed every year students are enrolled in school.
Why was last year’s FAFSA rollout such a disaster?
In 2023, the Department of Education overhauled the form for the first time in 40 years. It was part of a mandate from Congress to streamline the application, making it simpler and faster to fill out.
Changes to the FAFSA formula also allowed more students to qualify for Pell grants — awards from the federal government that do not need to be repaid.
But the rollout was plagued by constant errors and delays, ultimately resulting in fewer students applying for financial aid.
About 430,000 fewer students — mainly from low and middle-income families — took advantage of the FAFSA last year because of the Department of Education’s failures, according to a September report by the Government Accountability Office.
The report also found that nearly three out of every four calls to the Department of Education’s call center went unanswered during the first five months of the rollout due to understaffing.
Responding to the new FAFSA rollout Thursday, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, one of the Biden Education Department’s loudest critics, said she was glad the form was out, but “the Education Department now needs to ensure that the processing of applications is accurate, that missing capabilities are implemented quickly, and that future applicants never have to deal with this sort of botched rollout.”
How will the financial aid process be better this year?
This year’s form already went through four rounds of “beta testing,” with about 167,000 students submitting their applications.
“Simply put: the 2025-2026 FAFSA form is ready for prime time and is available both online and on paper,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Thursday.
The Department of Education said it has boosted staffing at its call centers by nearly 80% compared to last year. It added more than 700 agents since January — with an additional 255 agents coming on board over the next few weeks as applications ramp up.
Starting Friday, it will also expand the opening hours for call centers for families seeking help with their FAFSA forms — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET on weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. ET on Saturdays.
Officials said they expect to see a “surge of users today” after the announcement that the form is live, which could result in delayed wait times.
(BRANDYWINE, Md.) — On 7 acres in Brandywine, Maryland, Peter Scott, a former United States Army counterintelligence agent assigned to Special Forces, is farming to help food-insecure veterans in the D.C. metropolitan region.
“I was at a place in life where I needed to do something and I needed to feel like it was something good after my time in service,” said Scott.
He returned stateside after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I separated after about 12 years of service. I thought I was fine, but a few years went by and I was not fine,” Scott said. “I reached a moment with my family where it was ‘go get help or get out.’ I decided to go get help.”
After entering an inpatient program for combat PTSD, Scott met other service members who were food insecure. This discovery, along with a newfound passion for gardening, led him to launch Fields4Valor.
Since its inception, Fields4Valor has helped feed more than 500 veterans and their families. According to the Military Family Advisory Network, 1-in-5 active-duty military and veteran families experience food insecurity. And that number is on the rise.
While picking up her weekly bag of groceries from the farm, Shara Simms, a disabled Air Force veteran, expressed her admiration for the honey that is harvested from the honeycombs Scott maintains, calling it “liquid gold.”
Simms said the weekly bags afford her the opportunity to share “fresh fruit and honey that we don’t necessarily get in the stores because it’s extra expensive.”
“We live and die on everybody’s good will,“ said Scott. This year, he estimates approximately 300 volunteers helped on the farm – sometimes sourced from area military installations.
From the garden where rhubarb, kale, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce are grown, to the beehives where honey is extracted to fill jars and made into soaps, to the chicken coop where 120 chickens produce fresh farm eggs – everything is given to veterans.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in his New York hush money case after a jury in May convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Judge Juan Merchan has signaled his intention to sentence Trump to an “unconditional discharge” — allowing Trump to avoid prison, fines or probation — out of respect for the principle of presidential immunity, which takes effect on Jan. 20 once Trump becomes president.
Trump, who has maintained his innocence throughout the case, has blasted the prosecution as politically motivated.
Trump to be sentenced after SCOTUS fails to halt hearing
President-elect Donald Trump will appear virtually from his Mar-a-Lago estate when he is sentenced this morning in a New York courtroom, after the Supreme Court rejected his eleventh-hour bid to block his sentencing from taking place.
Trump had asked the nation’s highest court to halt his criminal sentencing on the grounds that he was entitled to immunity as president-elect.
In a Thursday night ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices to deny Trump the relief he sought, while Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh indicated they would have granted Trump’s request to halt his sentencing.
