WATCH: 'I do not know about any cuts to ALS research,' RFK Jr. tells Durbin

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a hearing Tuesday that he did not know anything about federal funding cuts made to grants and institutions dedicated to studying ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Kennedy about his friend Brian, a former Obama White House staff member, who has been living with ALS for eight years and can no longer walk or talk.

Durbin told Kennedy to explain to Brian, wife Sandra and their two daughters “why you've canceled ALS grants and institutions across this country and why you think research for diseases like ALS should be cut by 40 percent next year?”

“I don't know about those cuts. I will have to — I don't know if that's true,” said Kennedy, who was testifying before the Senate Appropriations health subcommittee.

“Cutting medical research is giving up on the future,” Durbin said later. “You can't do that. These families are counting on you, Secretary, and counting on your department to do this research gives them hope to live another day. Turning out the lights and saying you're doing it in the name of efficiency or DOE or whatever it is, there's no consolation for these families that are struggling.”

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Видео WATCH: 'I do not know about any cuts to ALS research,' RFK Jr. tells Durbin канала PBS NewsHour