--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate today. The hearing is meant to be about the president's health agenda, but it comes on the heels of upheaval at the CDC.
--:-- A Martinez: So what are lawmakers expected to ask about?
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm E. Martinez, that is Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Trump wants to install more of his own people at the Federal Reserve.
--:-- A Martinez: We'll have a majority very shortly, so that'll be great.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing and it's going to be great.
--:-- A Martinez: A Senate committee hearing to fill a vacant seat on the Fed's governing board could get the president one step closer to reaching that majority.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And a federal judge in Boston has handed Harvard University a legal victory, ruling the Trump administration's freeze on funding to the university unlawful.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from BetterHelp. As a dad, BetterHelp president Fernando Madera relates to needing flexibility when it comes to scheduling therapy.
--:-- Fernando Madera: I have kids under 18, so time is very limited. That's why at BetterHelp, our therapists try to have sessions sometimes at night, depending on the therapist or during the weekend.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So I think that's what we need to tell the parents. We are not alone. and we can help you out.
--:-- Fernando Madera: If a flexible schedule would help you, visit betterhelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month of online therapy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, a place to explore the exciting world of wine, including wines inspired by popular NPR shows, like all things considered Cabernet.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, all purchases help support NPR programming and fund quality reporting developed to connect people to their communities and the world they live in.
--:-- Michelle Martin: More at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from BetterHelp. It's only human to ask others for advice, like turning to your barista, hairdresser, or a taxi driver for life advice.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But when you're looking for help about relationships, anxiety, depression, or other clinical issues, they may not have all the right answers.
--:-- Fernando Madera: Instead, get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be testifying in the Senate today after a week of upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Last week, Kennedy pressured the brand new CDC Director Susan Minaris to resign. And when she refused, the White House fired her.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Then, three top CDC officials resigned in protest.
--:-- Michelle Martin: NPR's Selina Simmons-Duffin is here to tell us what to expect at the hearing today.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: So, technically this hearing is not about the turnover of leadership of the CDC.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Right.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: This is a Senate Finance Committee hearing announced last week to go over the president's 2026 health care agenda.
--:-- Michelle Martin: OK, so that's the stated topic.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: But what do you think senators might ask Secretary Kennedy about?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, I'm expecting it's going to be like a lot of hearings in recent years where there's kind of a split screen depending on the party of the senator doing the questioning.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: When Democrats are asking the questions, I think they're going to hammer Kennedy about what happened last week at CDC and about vaccine policy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Kennedy has replaced a key vaccine advisory panel with his own handpicked roster of people who have a history of anti-vaccine activism.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: They are set to shake up recommendations on a variety of vaccines later this month.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Several Democratic lawmakers, a variety of public health groups, and more than 1 current and former HHS employees have all called on Kennedy to resign in the last few days.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: And some Democratic states are now making moves to try and run public health without relying on CDC, given all of the chaos there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yesterday, California, Washington, and Oregon launched the West Coast Health Alliance to coordinate their own health guidance and vaccine recommendations.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: OK, so that's what you expect to hear from Democrats.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What about Republicans?
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: Republicans are moving in the opposite direction.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Florida announced plans to end all vaccine mandates for children and adults yesterday.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: I think Republican senators will talk a lot about Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again agenda.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He's been traveling all around the country with governors who are signing state laws related to some of his food-related priorities, like limiting food dyes and ultra-processed foods.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: There may be Republicans asking about the drastic cuts in biomedical research funding.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I think a lot of people are really going to be wondering what Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is going to say in this hearing in particular.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: Ooh, Bill Cassidy. Why him? Why is that?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, Cassidy is a physician.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: He chairs the health committee, which oversees HHS, and he believes strongly in vaccines.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Kennedy won Cassidy's vote by promising he wouldn't change that CDC vaccine advisory panel.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: Obviously, Kennedy broke that promise. He fired everyone on that committee and replaced them.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So I'll be watching to see whether Cassidy is going to call Kennedy out for all of the aggressive changes he's been making when it comes to vaccine policy.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: What do you expect to hear from Kennedy?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, you know, in interviews over the last week, He seemed kind of unbothered by the upheaval at CDC.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: He wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend defending his actions.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And in the piece, he places the blame for the high COVID-19 deaths in those early years of the pandemic squarely on CDC, even though I think you could argue that politics and incomplete information about an emerging virus deserve a fair share of the blame.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: I know what he wants to talk about are his Maha efforts and what he calls the chronic disease epidemic.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So I think he's going to try to keep that the focus as much as possible.
--:-- Michelle Martin: All right. That's NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks a lot.
--:-- Selina Simmons-Duffin: Thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Trump is trying to exert more control over the Federal Reserve.
--:-- Michelle Martin: One test of that effort will come this morning when a Senate committee holds a hearing on Trump's nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Fed's governing board.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Trump is also hoping to fill a second seat by getting rid of Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That move is being challenged in court.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The potential shakeup at the Fed is seen as a serious threat to the central bank's independence.
--:-- Michelle Martin: NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsey is with us now to tell us more about this.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Good morning, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Good morning, Scott. What are the stakes here?
--:-- Scott Horsey: Is this mainly about Trump wanting lower interest rates?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Interest rates are certainly part of the story.
--:-- Scott Horsey: But more broadly, this is about power and who gets to control decision-making at the Federal Reserve.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Trump has made no secret of the fact he wants lower borrowing costs, and he's likely to get that wish when policymakers meet in a couple of weeks.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That's because the job market is showing signs of softening, and lower interest rates might help to cushion that a little bit.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But Trump wants more.
--:-- Scott Horsey: He wants to install more of his own people at the central bank.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He's nominated a White House economic advisor, Stephen Myron, to fill one vacancy on the Fed's board.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And if he successful in pushing Fed Governor Lisa Cook aside he get a chance to put another ally on the board
--:-- Michelle Martin: That would mean four out of seven Fed governors would be Trump appointees
--:-- Scott Horsey: And the president told reporters last week he looking forward to that We have a majority very shortly so that be great Once we have a majority housing is going to swing and it going to be great
--:-- Michelle Martin: People are paying too high an interest rate.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Now, two caveats. One, the Fed does not directly control mortgage rates.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Those are set in the bond market, so this move could actually backfire if investors come to think a Trump-dominated Fed might let inflation get out of control.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And two, Congress set up the Fed to be insulated from exactly this kind of political pressure from the White House.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So Scott, what's your sense of how this is going to play out?
--:-- Scott Horsey: Right now, the fight's being waged on two fronts.
--:-- Michelle Martin: One's in the courts, where Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit to prevent the president from firing her from the Fed board.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Trump and his allies have accused Cook of mortgage fraud, but Cook denies that and says that's just a pretext to muscle her off the board.
--:-- Michelle Martin: While that's being sorted out in the courts, the Senate has a chance to weigh in.
--:-- Scott Horsey: We will hear in particular if any Senate Republicans stand up for Fed independence.
--:-- Michelle Martin: They have done so in the past.
--:-- Scott Horsey: We will see if they're willing to challenge the president this time.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Is Fed independence likely to come up at today's confirmation hearing?
--:-- Scott Horsey: Yeah, I'm sure we'll hear a lot of questions, at least from Democrats on the committee.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Trump's nominee, Stephen Myron, co-authored a paper last year in which he argued the president should have more control over the Fed's board of governors.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Now, he also suggested a ban on people moving from the White House to the Fed, although obviously that is not in effect right now.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Most other advanced economies have decided it's a good idea to insulate their central banks from meddling by politicians.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says it just makes for better long-term decision-making.
--:-- Michelle Martin: If you were not to have that, it would be a great temptation, of course, to use interest rates to affect elections, for example.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And that's something that we don't want to do.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Powell's own term as Fed chairman runs out next May, and at that time, Trump will have the opportunity to name a new chairman.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Powell could remain on the board as a Fed governor, however, through 2028.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So far, the Fed chairman has not said whether he plans to stick around that long.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That is NPR Scott Horsley.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Scott, thank you.
--:-- Scott Horsey: You're welcome.
--:-- Michelle Martin: A federal judge in Boston handed Harvard University a big win on Wednesday.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The judge says the Trump administration unlawfully froze more than $2 billion in research funding to the school.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The administration put the freeze in place in what it says was a response to allegations of anti-Semitism on campus, which prompted Harvard to sue.
--:-- Michelle Martin: NPR education correspondent Corey Turner has been looking over the judge's 84-page ruling, and is with us now to tell us more about it.
--:-- Corey Turner: Good morning, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So what can you tell us about how the funding for years, according to the judge, ran afoul of the law?
--:-- Corey Turner: Yeah, Judge Allison Burroughs offered really not one argument, but several.
--:-- Michelle Martin: For starters, she pointed out that the research being defunded at Harvard included studies of Alzheimer's, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, heart disease, autism.
--:-- Corey Turner: There was even a study to help emergency room doctors better serve suicidal veterans, none of which, the judge said, had any clear connection to anti-Semitism on campus.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Burroughs also said the freeze violated Harvard's First Amendment rights, and that's because at the same time the Trump administration claimed it was doing this to fight anti-Semitism, President Trump was excoriating Harvard more broadly on Truth Social for being a, quote, liberal mess and for fighting back against the administration
--:-- Corey Turner: So the judge said she found it difficult to conclude anything other than that the administration used anti as a smokescreen for a targeted ideologically motivated assault.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, Corey, it's interesting. Harvard has said that anti-Semitism had become a problem on campus.
--:-- Corey Turner: Does the judge speak to that?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah.
--:-- Corey Turner: In a ruling, Judge Burroughs was kind of hard on Harvard, saying, quote, it had been plagued by anti-Semitism in recent years and could and should have done a better job of dealing with the issue.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But she said Harvard was already taking steps to do just that when the Trump administration froze its funding.
--:-- Corey Turner: In fact, this was actually another way the administration, she said, had run afoul of federal law.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It had accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark law that protects Americans from discrimination based on race, color, and national origin.
--:-- Corey Turner: But Title VI requires a very clear step-by-step process for the government to follow to bring a school into compliance.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And the judge said jumping straight to this huge funding freeze essentially skipped most of those steps.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So what happens now?
--:-- Corey Turner: Well, White House spokesperson Liz Houston said, quote, We will immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we're confident we will ultimately prevail.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Meanwhile, Harvard President Alan Garber's statement was notably subdued, pledging to, quote, continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments, and be mindful of the changing landscape.
--:-- Corey Turner: And I think, Michelle, that's a nod to the fact that Harvard and the White House have been battling on multiple fronts here, while also talking behind the scenes about a potential settlement agreement like the ones already signed by Columbia and Brown University.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It's hard to know what effect this ruling is ultimately going to have, but I think it's pretty clear it strengthens Harvard's bargaining position.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is NPR education correspondent Corey Turner.
--:-- Corey Turner: Thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You're welcome, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's Up First for Thursday, September 4th.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- A Martinez: And I'm A Martinez.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Consider This could be your next listen.
--:-- A Martinez: It's from NPR.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day.
--:-- A Martinez: Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get those podcasts.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Diane Weber, Raphael Nam, Lauren McGaughy, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- A Martinez: It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange.
--:-- A Martinez: We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
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