HHS Diverted $12 Million From Minority Health Office to Cover RFK Jr.'s Rising Security Bill

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s personal security detail is getting more expensive, and the Department of Health and Human Services is paying for part of it with money that used to fight Black infant mortality.

HHS told congressional appropriators earlier this year that it was shifting roughly $12 million from its Office of Minority Health to cover Kennedy's rising protection costs, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter and a document it reviewed. Both Raw Story and The Daily Beast confirmed the figures in their own reporting on the Journal's findings.

Kennedy's security costs climbed from about $10 million in fiscal 2025 to roughly $17 million in fiscal 2026, the Journal reported. Protection for previous HHS secretaries ran about $5 million a year, sources told the paper.

Do the math and the numbers don't fully line up. The security increase was about $7 million. HHS took $12 million from the minority health office, $5 million more than needed to cover the gap. The Journal's sources said the secretary's office had a large pool of discretionary money it could have tapped instead, and that the extra amount was pulled partly because Kennedy's office has absorbed across-the-board budget cuts.

What the Office of Minority Health Does

The Office of Minority Health dates to 1986, created under President Ronald Reagan after a landmark federal report found Black infants were dying at higher rates than white infants and that Black Americans had shorter life expectancies overall. It has an annual budget of about $74 million and funds research and community programs aimed at closing those gaps.

In August, HHS notified 16 nonprofits and universities that their grants from the office were being canceled, citing limited funding and new departmental priorities, according to the Journal. The office is now being redirected toward what HHS calls "the root causes of infertility and reproductive health conditions," including low sperm count and erectile dysfunction, plus promoting physical activity.

The Journal reported HHS spent about $9 million last year on programs that provided fresh vegetables, chronic disease screenings, and at-home nurse visits for new mothers in low-income communities. Those are the programs losing funding.

HHS's Defense

HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard told the Journal the grant cuts "reflect HHS priorities and programmatic assessments" and are not tied to Kennedy's security needs. She said Kennedy "faces a security environment that differs significantly from that of previous HHS secretaries," citing threats against him, his travel schedule, and what's required to do his job safely.

Kennedy, 72, stopped speaking at outdoor events after a threat against him last year. His father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s. A cabinet secretary with that family history and an active threat profile could reasonably require heavier protection. Some increase in his security spending appears warranted.

The Daily Beast's coverage leaned into Kennedy's personal wealth, noting his family fortune was estimated at roughly $1.2 billion in 2015, about $1.7 billion today. Kennedy's net worth has nothing to do with how HHS staff decided to fund his federal security detail. The question is why a health equity office lost more money than the security increase actually cost, when other funding sources existed.

Part of a Bigger Pattern

This isn't an isolated funding fight. A tracking tool released by the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness, a group of researchers and attorneys, found the Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. since the president took office for his second term, according to PBS and the Associated Press. Health, nutrition, environmental, and disaster relief programs took the largest hits. Some of those cuts have already been challenged in court, with judges ruling against the administration in certain cases.

Separately, Kennedy's HHS is also pursuing a review of electromagnetic field and wireless radiation exposure, opening a 30-day public comment period starting September 21 and promising a report this fall, according to the Epoch Times. That effort isn't connected to the security funding fight, but it shows an agency actively redirecting attention and resources toward Kennedy's own priorities while other offices absorb cuts.

The Daily Beast said it contacted HHS for comment on the security funding shift and had not received a response as of publication. Congress has the authority to demand a full accounting of how HHS allocated the money, and appropriators who were briefed on the shift earlier this year have not publicly said whether they'll push back.