WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday pointed to his “publicly available calendar” as an example of his commitment to transparency and to beat back unfavorable reporting.
But no such calendar, detailing who Kennedy meets with or how he spends his time, has been released by the administration. STAT has been asking the Department of Health and Human Services for Kennedy’s calendar for more than a year, via Freedom of Information Act requests and emails to the press office.
Kennedy came into office advocating for “radical transparency,” and promising to open up government. His department has instead faced lawsuits over failures to release information, cut staffers who handle FOIA requests, and drawn anger from lawmakers, who can’t get responses to their queries, either. He’s even acknowledged that HHS blacklists certain journalists because leaders disagree with their work.
Since last year, STAT reporters have requested the calendars of Kennedy and his principal deputy chief of staff, Stefanie Spear, multiple times. That has included a request last February for a calendar from Kennedy’s first two weeks on the job and then a request last June for Spear’s calendars since she started in her role. Spear, whose personal office is attached to Kennedy’s, is known to attend nearly every meeting with the secretary.
