RFK Jr. HHS budget cuts of roughly $16 billion faced their first major congressional test Thursday as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, fielding pointed questions on vaccine policy while defending a budget that slashes discretionary spending by 12.5% compared to last year.

RFK Jr. HHS budget cuts totaling roughly $16 billion came under sharp congressional scrutiny Thursday as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his first Capitol Hill appearance of the year before the House Ways and Means Committee. A second hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee followed at 2 PM, kicking off a marathon week of at least seven committee appearances spanning both chambers.

Kennedy opened by framing the cuts as a structural shift away from the status quo. “We’re ending the era of federal policies that fueled the chronic disease epidemic and replacing them with policies that put the health of Americans first,” he said in prepared remarks.

Trump’s 2027 budget requests $111.1 billion in HHS discretionary spending, a 12.5% reduction from 2026 levels. The most contested line item is a $5 billion reduction to the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency that funds basic medical science research at universities across the country. Members of both parties are expected to push back on that cut across the coming week of hearings.

Kennedy said he was “not happy” with proposed cuts to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, an unusually candid admission that placed distance between himself and the broader Trump budget priorities. Rep. Gwen Moore pressed Kennedy on how those cuts aligned with his stated goal of reducing chronic disease in children. Kennedy did not offer a direct resolution.

On vaccines, Kennedy largely sidestepped, while Republican Rep. Tim Murphy praised him by pivoting to attacks on former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci. Rep. Linda Sánchez delivered the sharpest line of the morning, asking why Kennedy had suspended a pro-vaccine messaging campaign while simultaneously spending taxpayer funds on a promotional video depicting him working out shirtless in a hot tub with Kid Rock.

What the White House Is Telling Kennedy

The hearings arrive as the MAHA coalition shows signs of internal strain. White House advisers have reportedly told Kennedy and other HHS officials to avoid pushing controversial vaccine policy reforms publicly until after November’s midterm elections, a signal that the administration views some of his positions as an electoral liability rather than an asset.

Kennedy’s visibility matters for the same reason it carries risk. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem were both dismissed by Trump in part following poor performances before congressional committees. Thursday’s hearing is being watched as a measure of whether Kennedy can hold the line under sustained bipartisan questioning.

Congressional Bandwidth and the Broader Stakes

The week-long hearing series adds another layer to an already compressed congressional calendar that is simultaneously managing FISA reauthorization, budget reconciliation, and Senate markup pressure on the CLARITY Act, all competing for the same finite legislative bandwidth before midterm politics shut the window. Kennedy is also scheduled before the Senate Finance and HELP Committees on April 22.

Beyond the immediate political optics, the NIH cuts could affect AI-driven medical research pipelines that have expanded significantly under recent federal funding. As crypto.news has reported, the midterm calculation that is now shaping Kennedy’s public communications is the same political timeline driving decisions across the Trump administration on everything from crypto regulation to healthcare reform.

TLDR

• Hyperbridge increased its April 13 exploit loss estimate to about $2.5 million after a broader review across four chains.
• The attacker extracted around 245 ETH and then minted about 1 billion fake bridged DOT tokens.
• Polkadot confirmed that only DOT bridged through Hyperbridge was affected, while native DOT remained secure.
• The exploit targeted a flaw in the Merkle Mountain Range proof verification logic in HandlerV1.
• Hyperbridge paused Token Gateway operations and is working with Binance and law enforcement on fund recovery.

Hyperbridge has raised its loss estimate from the April 13 Token Gateway exploit to about $2.5 million. The project had earlier reported losses of nearly $237,000 based on early on-chain activity. However, a broader review across four chains revealed deeper damage and a two-phase attack.

Polkadot Confirms Bridged DOT Exposure

Hyperbridge said it revised the figure after reconciling transactions across Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum. The team explained that it reviewed attacker activity in two phases and included losses from incentive pools. As a result, it increased the total realized losses to roughly $2.5 million.

Polkadot stated that the incident affected only DOT bridged through Hyperbridge to Ethereum. The network confirmed that native DOT on Polkadot remained unaffected. It also clarified that the broader Polkadot ecosystem did not face a direct impact.

Hyperbridge initially focused on the visible sell-off of bridged DOT on Ethereum. However, further investigation showed that the attacker first extracted about 245 ETH from Token Gateway. The attacker then moved into a second phase that involved minting about 1 billion bridged DOT tokens.

The attacker minted the tokens without authorization and sold them into available decentralized exchange liquidity. Consequently, the sales pressure deepened losses across supported chains. Hyperbridge confirmed that the exploit centered on its Token Gateway component.

Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum Impacted

Security researchers traced the flaw to the Merkle Mountain Range proof verification logic. The vulnerability affected Hyperbridge’s HandlerV1 path and enabled forged cross-chain messages. As a result, the attacker gained control over admin functions tied to the bridged DOT contract.

The attacker used that access to mint fake bridged DOT tokens on Ethereum. The attacker then dumped those tokens into limited liquidity pools. This sequence expanded losses beyond the initial ETH extraction.

Hyperbridge stated that the damage remained isolated to Token Gateway. It confirmed that bridged token contracts on Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum were affected. However, it said that Intent Gateway and related products were not impacted.

The team said it traced a large portion of exploited funds to Binance. It added that it works with Binance’s compliance team and law enforcement to freeze and recover assets. Hyperbridge said it plans to allocate BRIDGE tokens if recovery efforts fail.

All Token Gateway bridging remains paused while the team finalizes a patch. Hyperbridge said it will complete an independent audit and add safeguards before resuming operations. It confirmed that it will publish the audit report before restoring full functionality.

TLDR

• Charles Hoskinson said Bitcoin’s quantum proposal would require a hard fork instead of a soft fork.
• He argued that the plan would invalidate existing signature schemes used by current Bitcoin users.
• Hoskinson stated that the proposal cannot recover about 1.7 million early mined bitcoin.
• He said roughly 1.1 million of those coins belong to Satoshi Nakamoto.
• The proposal suggests users could reclaim frozen funds through zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson challenged a new Bitcoin proposal that targets quantum threats. He said the plan would require a hard fork rather than a soft fork. He also argued that the change cannot recover early coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin’s Quantum Proposal Faces Hard Fork Dispute

Bitcoin developers proposed BIP-361 to freeze addresses vulnerable to future quantum computers. They said the change would phase out old signature schemes and protect dormant funds. However, Hoskinson rejected the claim that the plan qualifies as a soft fork.

He stated, “To actually do this, you need a hard fork,” in a YouTube video. He argued that the proposal invalidates signature rules that users still rely on. Therefore, he said old software would stop working unless every participant upgrades.

Developers described BIP-361 as a rule tightening that older nodes could accept. In contrast, Hoskinson said the measure changes core validation standards. He added that Bitcoin culture has long opposed hard forks because they alter network history.

BIP-361 co-author Jameson Lopp addressed the debate on X this week. He wrote that he does not like the proposal and hopes adoption never becomes necessary. He called it “a rough idea for a contingency plan” rather than a final plan.

Satoshi-era Holdings Remain Beyond Recovery

Hoskinson said the plan cannot protect about 1.7 million early bitcoin. He stated that around 1.1 million of those coins belong to Satoshi Nakamoto. He argued that those holdings predate modern wallet standards.

BIP-361 suggests that users could reclaim frozen funds through zero-knowledge proofs. The proof would tie ownership to a BIP-39 seed phrase used in newer wallets. However, Hoskinson said early wallets did not use seed phrases.

He explained that the original Bitcoin software relied on a local key pool. That system generated private keys without a deterministic seed phrase. Therefore, he said no proof based on BIP-39 can verify those older coins.

He said, “1.7 million coins can’t do that. It’s not possible.” He added that migration would require cryptographic proof that early holders cannot produce. As a result, those coins would remain frozen under the proposal.

Lopp estimated that 5.6 million bitcoin sit dormant across the network. He argued that freezing them would prove safer than letting quantum attackers unlock them. He presented the freeze as a protective option rather than a finalized policy.