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Floor Speech
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Mr. KELLY. Mr. President, I really care about science. I spent my career as an engineer, as a Navy pilot and a test pilot, and as an astronaut--three jobs where facts matter, where you make decisions based on science, not superstition, because when you are launching off of an aircraft carrier or orbiting the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour, there is no room for conspiracy theories; you have to deal in reality.
In my career, relying on science literally meant the difference between life and death. The same is true for the person who is responsible for our Nation's health. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is responsible for making sure that the best science guides our healthcare, from developing lifesaving medicines to preventing deadly diseases.
This job requires a commitment to science, facts, and to public health, but the nominee before us today, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has spent much of his career doing the exact opposite--rejecting science, spreading conspiracy theories, and putting public health at risk. That is not someone that I want in charge of keeping Arizonans healthy.
That would be his job, by the way--responding to disease outbreaks, approving new medicines and treatments, overseeing healthcare coverage for millions of Arizonans and millions of Americans. So this isn't just some bureaucratic decision that we are about to make; this is about whether the next HHS Secretary will protect public health or undermine it with dangerous misinformation.
Let's be clear about Mr. Kennedy's record. This is not someone who is simply asking questions about vaccines. Healthy skepticism is one thing, and I always told my space shuttle crew members to tell me when they thought I was wrong, to constantly question the way we were doing things. We should be doing the same thing here in the Senate.
But what Mr. Kennedy has engaged in goes far beyond that--far beyond that. Even when presented with definitive science, he has doubled down on conspiracy theories because, for him, that is what paid the bills. He was the chairman of the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in the country. The group he led has spread false claims that vaccines cause autism, that vaccines cause cancer, and that they cause autoimmune disease. This organization has filed lawsuits to block children from getting vaccinated.
What happens when people believe that? We get outbreaks of disease that we thought was long gone in the rearview mirror.
In America Samoa, he spread misinformation about vaccines during a measles outbreak that killed 83 people. Instead of helping families get lifesaving care, Mr. Kennedy sowed fear and doubt, and then he had the audacity to question whether measles was really the cause of those 83 deaths.
In Texas, right now--right now, today--there is a measles outbreak. It is in a county that has low vaccination rates. So far, all of the cases are in unvaccinated people. Now, we know exactly what causes these outbreaks. It is not science; it is misinformation. It is people like Mr. Kennedy telling parents they can't trust their doctors.
I am thinking about this nomination not as a Senator but as a father and a grandparent. I know how much Arizona families care about their kids' health. All they want us to do is do what is right for their family and for their kids. And I know what it means to trust doctors, to trust medicine, to trust science.
I want my granddaughter Sage to grow up in a world that is safer and healthier than the one before her, where we don't have to worry about diseases that we already know how to prevent. I think about my daughter, her mom, who, like any first-time parent, is doing everything she possibly can to make the best decisions for her child, and that is already hard enough. The last thing parents need is one more loud voice--especially one in a position of authority--pushing conspiracy theories that make it harder to know what is true. It is bad for kids across Arizona and across the country.
When he spreads these conspiracy theories about vaccines and autism, it has cascading effects. Senator Hassan made this point, I think, better than anybody else could. Just last week or the week before, after speaking about her son, who has cerebral palsy, Senator Hassan said:
The problem with this witness' response on the autism cause and the relationship to vaccines is because he's relitigating and churning settled science. So we can't go forward and find out what the cause of autism is and treat these kids and help these families.
She continued. She went on and said:
Sometimes science is wrong . . . but we make progress, and we build on the work, and we become more successful. But when you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward . . . and it freezes us in place.
So, you see, the job of HHS Secretary isn't about chasing conspiracy theories; it is about making sure families get the best care possible based on the best science available so we can make progress and live healthy lives.
Folks, here is what makes this even worse--like, a lot worse: Mr. Kennedy--get this--Mr. Kennedy vaccinated his own kids while telling other parents not to. His own cousin, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, called him a predator for what he has done. That is not leadership, folks; that is hypocrisy.
Here is what Ambassador Kennedy wrote:
Bobby prays on the desperation of parents of sick children--vaccinating his own children while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.
She went on:
Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he has told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa's deadly 2019 measles outbreak, have cost lives.
She continued:
And now we know that Bobby's crusade against vaccination has benefited him in other ways, too.
His ethics report makes clear that he will keep his financial stake in a lawsuit against [the] HPV vaccine.
In other words--
This is Ambassador Kennedy's words.
In other words, he is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls.
That was a quote from his own cousin.
The Senate cannot ignore this massive conflict of interest. Mr. Kennedy has personally made millions of dollars from lawsuits attacking vaccines, including the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer.
And, if confirmed, he would oversee the FDA, the very Agency that regulates the vaccines that he is suing over. That is a direct financial incentive to undermine vaccines, even if it puts people's lives at risk. And he wouldn't commit to removing himself from this equation.
And it is not just vaccines. Mr. Kennedy has made a career of embracing conspiracy theories over facts. He claims--it would be funny in another context. But Mr. Kennedy--get this--claims Wi-Fi and 5G cause cancer. He thinks the COVID vaccine is part of a government plot. He suggested that vaccines are a holocaust.
But, of course, when he was confronted about that, he said he didn't recall saying it. He believes that the people who are running our vaccine programs should be in jail. And when asked about 9/11, one of the most defining moments in our Nation's history, he refused to say who was responsible. And his response? He said:
It's hard to tell what's a conspiracy theory and what isn't.
Well, Mr. President, we cannot put somebody in charge of our Nation's healthcare who doesn't know how to separate fact from fiction. No one in the Senate should be comfortable with that.
But the dangerous misinformation doesn't stop with vaccines. Mr. Kennedy claimed that anti-depressants, not guns, are to blame for school shootings. Let's be clear, folks. There is zero--zero--evidence to support that--none. What we do know and what the data tells us is that in every other developed country, they also have anti-depressants. What they don't have is America's level of gun violence. The difference is not mental health treatment. It is easy access to guns for kids, for criminals, and for dangerous people who shouldn't have them.
Mr. President, my family and I have lived with the consequences of gun violence. My wife Gabby Giffords was nearly killed by a gunman when meeting with her constituents outside a grocery store in 2011. Six people died; 12 were injured. You won't find anyone at that grocery store who believes that an excess of mental health treatment was responsible for that tragedy--not one.
Gabby and I have sat in living rooms of parents who have lost their children in mass shootings, and we have fought for real, commonsense gun safety laws that can save lives.
Just like Senator Hassan, I will not stand here and let conspiracy theories distract from real solutions. And this is the core of the problem. Mr. Kennedy treats healthcare like it is a conspiracy theory.
Mr. Kennedy is not the person who should be running the Department of Health and Human Services. It is very clear. If Mr. Kennedy was simply a private citizen saying these things, that would be one thing. It would still be a problem, by the way. But this is someone who wants to be in charge of all of our healthcare.
And if his dangerous views weren't enough, he doesn't even understand the weight of the job he is applying for. In his confirmation hearing, he didn't know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. He didn't understand the different parts of Medicare and what they provide for seniors. He didn't know what a community health center was. He couldn't articulate a basic managing plan for HHS's $2 trillion budget.
He wouldn't answer as to whether he will negotiate for lower drug prices for seniors. And that means, if you are a senior, with him in charge you might see higher drug prices.
Mr. Kennedy does not have a medical degree, and he has no experience--zero experience--in healthcare policy. So this isn't just about bad ideas; it is about dangerous ideas and the fact that he is completely unprepared to do this job.
We also learned at his confirmation hearing that Mr. Kennedy won't make decisions based on science, data, and facts or what is best for our public health. Instead, he will do whatever President Trump tells him to do. Over and over again, when asked about his policies, he didn't give answers based on what he believes is right. He said:
President Trump has not told me what his policy is.
On reproductive health:
Trump has told me to look into it, but I don't know what his policy is.
This is a nominee who traffics in conspiracies, who doesn't know much about the Agency he is nominated to lead, and who has said he will just do whatever he is told which, considering what we heard all along, that President Trump has a ``concept'' of a healthcare plan--it is not a real plan. But we still don't know what that is. Now, that, to me, feels like a big problem.
Mr. President, we need an HHS Secretary who will lead with facts, not fear; who will lower the price of prescription drugs or fight to do that; and fight to reduce healthcare costs and not to go along with efforts to take health insurance away from kids and people with disabilities; who will build trust in our healthcare system, not undermine it.
Mr. Kennedy has built a career out of rejecting science, spreading misinformation, and profited off of fear. He has compared vaccine scientists to Nazis. He has refused to say if 9/11 was a conspiracy theory. And when it comes to leading this Nation's healthcare system, he has no plan, no knowledge, and no independence; and he says he will do whatever President Trump tells him to do.
So my colleagues, we all have to ask ourselves: Are we really willing to put the health of American families in his hands; are we? I know my answer, and I urge everyone in this Chamber to think very hard about theirs.
Mr. President, I yield 30 minutes of postcloture debate time to the Democratic leader.
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