-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I stand here in strong opposition to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the United States of America.
The American people know that our healthcare system is broken. Families have to work through too much health insurance redtape, only to be denied care or forced to pay out of pocket.
Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Families are saddled with medical debt from prices that are too high and burdened by quality of care that is too low. When they need to get an appointment, they have to wait months, drive hours, or simply go without the care which they need.
Pharmacies, hospitals, and community health centers struggle to keep their doors open, and communities are watching health providers and workers burn out under the strain of a healthcare system that is increasingly being sold out to greedy investors and the billionaire class.
The American people deserve a real healthcare system, not the current sick care system. And they deserve leadership who will recognize all of these problems and commit to solving them.
Instead, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are only making things worse.
To Elon Musk, ``move fast and break things'' is not in the U.S. Constitution. That is why these Federal district court judges are stopping your actions.
In Trump's first 3 weeks in office, he has taken illegal and unconstitutional action that disrupted lifesaving health research, sent Musk and his DOGE acolytes to make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, cut off Federal funding for community health centers, and used discriminatory fearmongering to threaten Federal funding for hospitals and health providers just trying to provide care for their patients.
Every chaotic decision, every cut, every illegal action are all to make it easier for this administration to work alongside congressional Republicans to slash and burn our core healthcare programs. They are not doing this to make things better for everyday Americans. It is Robin Hood in reverse. They are working to take from those who need it the most just to give billions more in handouts for defense contractors and their billionaire donors.
They want hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for billionaires. They want to increase defense spending by $150 billion-- more nuclear weapons, more. But then, in turn, they say: Where are we going to get the money? They say: Ah, we are going to Medicaid. We are going to the Affordable Care Act. We are going to community health centers. We are going to go to the programs that actually do protect people.
More nuclear weapons aren't going to protect people; it is having access to the healthcare system that can help protect their families.
Trump and Musk and Republicans, they are going to call it ``efficiency'' or they will call it ``transparency'' or they will say it is just adding basic requirements to Medicaid. This is all code--the code for ``cuts.''
Efficiency, transparency are--just be honest about it, Elon; just be honest about it, President Trump--cuts to programs.
They keep saying there are all kinds of waste in the system. Well, point it out to us; we will cut it out for you. Give us the list of the programs you want to have cut because there is waste, and we will do it. But do you want to know what they don't want to say? They don't want to say that they want to cut Medicaid. They don't want to say they want to cut clean air, clean water--the programs that protect ordinary people. They want to call it waste. We are going to call it out for what it is.
Where are they going? They are going to the programs that help provide the healthcare for ordinary Americans--cuts to healthcare that ordinary Americans rely upon. And when Americans have to wait longer for care, when they have to pay more, or watch the only hospital in their community shut down, the blame for what will happen will lay at the feet of the politicians who put self-interest above the interest of the American people.
Rather than consider a nominee who would seriously protect and preserve the health of the American people, Donald Trump nominated yet another enabler to his Cabinet, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who, instead of standing up to the Trump-Musk chaos, will only add fuel to Donald Trump's ``Make America Sick Again'' campaign because that is what it is, ``Make America Sick Again.''
Ralph Waldo Emerson from Massachusetts, he said: Health is the first wealth. Well, that first wealth is going to get looted so billionaires get even richer.
Serving as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is an immense responsibility. The Agency oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Food and Drug Administration; the National Institutes of Health, which is made up of 27 institutes and centers. Each decision that a HHS Secretary makes would have a huge impact on our healthcare system.
Run well, HHS ensures medications are safe and effective; keeps workers and students and seniors safe; protects the public from global pandemics or disease outbreaks; guarantees hospitals, doctors, and community health centers provide safe quality care; and funds research that will build the foundation to accurately diagnose patients, better treat cancer, cure Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. That is what it is supposed to be all about, not freezing that funding, not cutting that funding, but ensuring that the researchers have the funding they need because researchers' medicines fields of dreams from which we harvest the findings gives hope to families that we will find a cure for those diseases that have run through their family's medical history.
We know that HHS as Health and Human Services, but it also stands for ``human health security.'' The stakes of leadership are life and death. But instead of nominating a serious and qualified candidate, Trump selected a candidate who questioned the well-proven conclusion that HIV causes AIDS, made millions by spreading lies about vaccines, compared vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany, said Wi-Fi in cell phones caused ``leaky brains,'' threatened to remove fluoride from drinking water, and made baseless claims about medication for depression, that it would lead to mass shootings.
Mr. Kennedy's track record shows that he is a danger to the health of America. He would make America sick again.
In June of 2019, he went to Samoa on a trip arranged by anti-vaccine activists. He used that trip to spread lies about the measles vaccine to the Samoan Prime Minister and Director General of Health. He and the organization he led amplified activists who spread false information about the measles vaccine. And after a measles outbreak broke out in Samoa and 16 people died, rather than intervene and help, Mr. Kennedy sent a letter to the Prime Minister to blame these deaths on the vaccine rather than the absence of vaccines.
The death toll in Samoa grew to 83. Volunteers in New Zealand sent tiny coffins to help bury the dozens of children who died. A New Zealand vaccinologist later said the impact of Mr. Kennedy's role in the outbreak was ``devastating.'' In a moment, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., could have used his influence for good, he fueled disinformation that cost lives.
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was asked about Medicare and Medicaid, he could not answer questions in his confirmation hearing, the most basic questions, demonstrating that he would be at HHS only to make whatever cuts that Trump and Musk and DOGE dictate at the expense of the healthcare of the American people. Now he is in line to be the No. 1 healthcare official in the United States. That would be a disaster.
Mr. Kennedy has reportedly given reassurances on his position on vaccines or on his position on food and chronic disease.
To my colleagues, I would say this: We cannot address chronic disease if we are slashing Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act or recklessly cutting off funding from hospitals and community health centers.
If we are battling vaccine misinformation, it will make it much more difficult to take on chronic disease, like heart disease or diabetes. The long-term impact of food on children's health doesn't matter if children are dying from preventable infectious diseases because their families believed misinformation spread by the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Even with the promises he has made on the vaccine misinformation, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has not demonstrated that he will fulfill his promises. He has used his position to lead people down the dangerous path of vaccine misinformation. And when asked about his role in the Samoa measles outbreak, he lied. The stakes are too high to take a risk on this nominee.
I hear from people in Massachusetts who rely on our healthcare system: single mothers of disabled children relying on Medicaid--also called MassHealth in Massachusetts--to make sure their child gets care. I hear from people living with cystic fibrosis or parents of children on the autism spectrum or with Down syndrome who could only afford their medication or coverage with MassHealth Medicaid coverage. For them, Medicaid is the lifeline. And when that lifeline is cut, their lives get harder. That is what this administration is aiming to do with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in the lead.
The American people deserve more than what they have now. They should be able to get healthcare when they need it, and they should not have to worry that it is available. They should be able to go to their doctor or to their pharmacy without running up their debt or being forced to choose between paying their rent or a medical bill.
They should have health providers who aren't too overworked and burned out to provide them quality care. They should have primary care, mental health care, addiction care, dental care, and cancer treatment more available to them without waiting months or traveling for hours or being left to hope for an available clinical trial.
Americans should have unquestioned healthcare access and quality, and I want to deliver on that for every single American. But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will only make this harder by embracing Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the spread of vaccine disinformation.
I am not alone in my concern. I have received over a thousand calls and emails to my office opposing his nomination. I have also received letters from over 20,000 physicians, including thousands of pediatricians, internal medicine and emergency medicine doctors, representing all fifty States and Puerto Rico, over 800 public health officials; 75 Nobel Laureates oppose his confirmation. Chairs of pediatric departments across the country; statements from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, representing over 11,000 educators; and the national nurses union, representing 225,000 nurses, all oppose Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Every single one of them expressed concern and dismay about having a Secretary of Health and Human Services who doesn't believe in vaccines that save lives.
We need to listen to the people on the frontlines: the health providers who have dedicated their lives to serving their patients; the researchers, who have committed to finding lifesaving treatments and cures; and the educators who care for our Nation's children each and every day. They are all saying no to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He is unqualified, and his confirmation would be dangerous to the health of our Nation.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source