When Sen. Bill Cassidy announced in February that he would vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary despite concerns about his skepticism of vaccines, the Louisiana Republican said he had secured a commitment from Kennedy to testify before the committee Cassidy chairs once a quarter if asked.
But Kennedy has not come before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee since May — and he’s hardly the only administration official who has frustrated senators by failing to show up.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem has rebuffed requests to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed lawmakers behind closed doors earlier this month on the administration’s controversial strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea. But they have not testified in public about the strikes, as some Democrats have demanded.
Democrats have suggested the lack of testimony is yet another way the administration is snubbing the legislative branch after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk dismantled federal agencies created by Congress and cut previously approved funding for other programs.
“We’ve had no serious public congressional hearings on the threat of military conflict off the coast of Venezuela, no public testimony from defense officials on this issue,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said. “Where are Senate Republicans? Where’s the oversight?”
Republicans are in the majority in the House and Senate, giving them control of committees and the ability to invite witnesses to testify. Committees also have the power to subpoena witnesses, but it is rarely used, particularly with administration officials.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that the administration regularly communicates with lawmakers, “constantly explaining our polices and receiving real-time feedback to ensure we are most effectively implementing the agenda the American people elected President Trump to enact.”
But administration officials testified more often before many committees during the first year of President Joe Biden’s term than they have this year.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, has held two full committee hearings with administration witnesses this year, down from 24 such hearings and briefings in 2021, the first year of the Biden administration. The House Foreign Affairs Committee had 47 appearances from administration officials in 2021 — and only 12 this year.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the senator was “very satisfied” with the administration’s engagement and “looks forward to more hearings” in 2026. A spokesperson for Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this month that he was “entirely dissatisfied with the Trump administration’s engagement with Congress” on the strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean that have killed more than 100 people since September.
But Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), the committee’s chairman, said he was content with the information he had received from the Defense Department as part of the committee’s inquiry into a Sept. 2 attack that killed two crew members who survived an initial strike on the boat.
House Democrats have also pushed for more administration officials to trek to Capitol Hill.
Rep. Adam Smith (Washington), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has unsuccessfully called for an open hearing with military officials on the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the waters off Latin America.
Republicans, meanwhile, blocked an attempt last week by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (New Jersey), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to subpoena Kennedy to testify about his moves to weaken the federal government’s commitment to vaccines, to push out scientists who disagree with him and other steps that have alarmed public health leaders and even some Republican lawmakers.
In the Senate, the push for more testimony from Trump administration officials has been bipartisan in some cases — including Cassidy’s invitation in September for Kennedy to testify.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the health committee’s ranking member, has pressed Cassidy, its Republican chairman, to be more aggressive in pushing Kennedy to fulfill his pledge to appear quarterly if asked.
“Failure to conduct an oversight hearing on Secretary Kennedy’s actions would be an abdication of our responsibility — both from a moral perspective and as a matter of sound public health policy,” Sanders and the 10 Democrats on the committee wrote this month in a letter to Cassidy.
Asked about Kennedy’s failure to appear, Cassidy said last week that he was in touch with the Health and Human Services Department. The department did not respond directly to questions about why Kennedy — who appeared before the Senate Finance Committee in September — has not come before Cassidy’s committee.
“Secretary Kennedy has been deeply engaged with Congress since his confirmation, testifying before multiple House and Senate committees, participating in member briefings and roundtables, and speaking directly with lawmakers on a near-daily basis,” Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the department, said in a statement. “It is naive to suggest that hearings are the only meaningful way to engage Congress in today’s partisan environment.”
Noem has testified before Congress several times this year, but she has not appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee despite two invitations to testify this month from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s chairman. Grassley criticized Noem this month for declining the invitation without suggesting alternate dates she could testify.
“During her confirmation process, Secretary Noem committed to appearing before this committee when invited,” Grassley said at a committee meeting. “I expect better cooperation from the secretary early next year.”
The homeland security secretaries who served under Biden and President Barack Obama each testified before the committee during the first years of their administrations. Neither John F. Kelly, who served as homeland security secretary for the first six months of Trump’s first term, nor Kirstjen Nielsen, who succeeded him, came before the committee during Trump’s first year.
Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he wants Noem to answer questions under oath about the administration’s immigration raids in Chicago and elsewhere. Noem “made some lame excuse” not to appear, Durbin said, adding that he wished Grassley had pushed her harder to show up.
“I’ll co-sign a bipartisan subpoena if that’s what it takes,” Durbin said.
Clare Slattery, a Grassley spokeswoman, said committee aides had been in touch with the Department of Homeland Security for months.
Senate Democrats set a bad example last year by letting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray refuse to testify before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when they were in the majority, she added. (Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), the Homeland Security committee’s chairman at the time, criticized Mayorkas and Wray last year for failing to show up, saying their refusal would “deal a serious blow to trust in our government.”)
“Grassley is a champion for oversight, has many active DHS inquiries and fully expects Secretary Noem to testify in the very near future to ensure DHS is held accountable to the American people,” Slattery said in a statement.
Democrats on other committees have also complained that more administration and agency officials have not testified.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, has asked Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), the committee’s chairman, to summon half a dozen Trump administration officials to testify. They include Russell Vought, in his capacity as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; and several banking regulators who testified in December before the House Financial Services Committee but have not come before the Senate.
“Many of these folks are required to come before Congress on a regular basis as a matter of law — and they’re not even doing the legally required parts, much less the additional oversight that’s sometimes needed when there are big issues pending,” Warren said. “We’re having no luck here.”
No administration officials have testified before the committee this year. Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, an independent agency, testified twice.
That’s a departure from previous administrations. Administration and agency officials testified more than 70 times before the committee in 2009 during the first year of the Obama administration — when the aftermath of the financial crisis intensified scrutiny of Wall Street; 12 times in 2017 during the first year of Trump’s first term; and 20 times in 2021 during the first year of Biden’s term.
The committee has been delayed in inviting administration officials because of the 43-day government shutdown and the committee’s ambitious legislative agenda, including a housing bill that Warren worked on with Scott, according to a Senate Republican aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The committee is expected to ask administration officials to testify early next year, the aide said.
Rachel Roubein contributed to this report.
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