Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, thank you to my colleague from Oregon, who has very clearly stated why this nominee is not someone who should be holding the title of Secretary of Health and Human Services, and I appreciate all of his work on this, and his wife's work. I hope everyone heeds them.

The American people are watching now with alarm because the vast majority of people know vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they are lifesaving. But we are now on the verge of confirming as our Nation's highest health official a man who has spent considerable time, money, and effort undermining that basic fact; a man who has abused his platform by refusing to acknowledge the well-established science that shows that vaccines are not linked to autism.

Fear about that point--fueled by RFK, Jr., and others peddling misinformation--is a leading reason that parents do not get their kids vaccinated against preventable, dangerous diseases. That is why elevating a man like RFK, Jr., to lead HHS would be so dangerous. Just giving him any platform to spread vaccine doubt is dangerous. But to give him one of the biggest megaphones in the world?

It is truly shameful that we even are debating this. My colleagues should know better. They actually do know better. They are looking the other way. They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK, Jr., won't use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades: undermine vaccines.

Never mind the fact that CDC has already modified web pages with information about vaccines and other vital public health information, which a Federal judge has now ordered the Trump administration to restore. Never mind that the Trump administration is also reportedly planning widespread and significant layoffs--layoffs--at CDC and across HHS. This is how RFK, Jr., substitutes his own beliefs for science.

So when the vaccine conspiracies start swirling, and RFK, Jr., turns HHS into ground zero for misinformation, ``I had no idea'' is not going to be an excuse for confirming him, because at the HELP Committee hearing, the chair pressed him repeatedly about the debunked claims that vaccines cause autism. And when RFK, Jr., said he needed to ``see the evidence,'' he was shown the evidence, but to no one's surprise, he did not keep his word, admit he had been wrong, and spread the good news that vaccines do not cause autism.

He has had 2 weeks since that hearing to look at the same settled science as everyone else--crickets. But he won't hesitate to quote the latest anti-vax conspiracy. He is totally up to speed on that front.

Are my colleagues really buying that this guy will take an impartial look at the science?

If you think RFK, Jr., will change who he is, you are lying to yourself. He has given no evidence to suggest that and all the evidence in the world to the contrary.

Given his long and growing track record, we cannot just pretend, if RFK, Jr., finally gets power to undermine vaccines--a cause he has dedicated a considerable amount of time and effort to--that he will just give up. That is not believable.

And I know I have been talking a lot about vaccines because it is so obviously alarming, but the responsibility he would have goes far beyond that.

So let's break some of this down, both the ways he could undermine vaccines as HHS Secretary and the other responsibilities that would be at stake.

To start with, the CDC is under HHS. That means that the Secretary directly appoints people to CDC's vaccine advisory board. That board is responsible for making recommendations about vaccines, and it is those recommendations that determine whether or not certain vaccines have to be covered by insurance.

So simply put, changing those recommendations will change what vaccines millions of Americans--including kids--will be able to get from their healthcare provider. If he is confirmed, there would be nothing stopping RFK, Jr., from firing the entire board and replacing them all with vaccine skeptics. After all, he has said many times and in many ways that he thinks CDC is corrupt and bought by Pharma--as usual, by the way, without any evidence.

RFK, Jr., would also oversee the Food and Drug Administration--that is another Agency he has repeatedly tried to discredit and attack-- where he says he plans to fire--fire--hundreds of scientists on day one, at an Agency that plays the crucial role of making sure our drugs and our treatments, including vaccines, are safe and effective when we purchase them.

Not only would Mr. Kennedy have a key perch from which he would undermine vaccines, on a scale like never seen before, he could also use that platform to peddle quack treatments with no basis in science.

RFK, Jr., would also have jurisdiction over NIH. That alone means influence over billions of dollars in medical research--research that is responsible for a significant portion of our economy and, more importantly, research that patients are desperately hoping will help them find cures. But RFK, Jr., could redirect those funds to promote his favorite pet conspiracies instead of promising cures, or he could make good on his plans to fire hundreds of researchers and pause infectious disease research for 8 years.

It should go without saying that viruses aren't going to take a break.

And here is the thing: The attacks on medical research are now already happening under Trump. From his day one Executive orders, President Trump has already been threatening medical research. Suddenly, all of our grants are at risk because they are looking at addressing barriers to care or understanding why Black and Native American women have higher maternal death rates.

And now President Trump is also trying to illegally, arbitrarily, and suddenly change NIH guidelines to set an unrealistic low cap on indirect cost rates. That will mean researchers laid off, studies canceled--including lifesaving clinical trials--and kids not able to get the treatment they need, all because President Trump and Elon Musk don't seem to understand how we actually fund important research and couldn't even be bothered to find out before taking an ax to our medical research labs.

At a time when lifesaving research like this is already under attack by the President and the richest man in the world, no one who truly values medical research should vote to install one of the biggest attackers of medical science as the Secretary of HHS.

Insurance is another huge portfolio for HHS. Last time Trump was in office, we saw millions of people lose their healthcare coverage. The uninsured rate went up after years of hard-won progress. And we all know he still wants to rip up the Affordable Care Act, which will drive up costs and kick people off their coverage.

There is no reason to think Mr. Kennedy will stand up to that effort. Indeed, there is no reason to think he has the experience and understanding of the system to actually do so.

During his committee hearings, RFK, Jr., confused Medicare and Medicaid. This is basic stuff. He failed to describe the components of Medicare.

And, yes, Mr. President, I do absolutely have to talk about abortion care. This is of grave importance right now.

In his hearings, not only did RFK, Jr., confess to having no real understanding of EMTALA--that is a law which requires patients have access to lifesaving, emergency care, including, in some cases, abortion care--he also showed that he will be totally open to Republicans' fact-free efforts to rip away access to medication abortion.

Like so many other issues that RFK, Jr., is simply wrong about, the science on that has been settled for many years now. Mr. Kennedy made clear, though, he is very open to revisiting access to the abortion pill, based on a Republican argument against the science that basically boils down to ``nuh uh''--``nuh uh.''

Putting up barriers to accessing the abortion pill or ripping it off the market completely, as Republicans have made very clear they want to do, would be absolutely devastating.

And let's not forget about pandemic threats. The lies that RFK, Jr., spread during the last pandemic already made clear he is not the man to do this job. But if that weren't enough, when there was a pandemic threat response planning session for this new administration, he skipped it. He didn't go. It would be almost comical if this wasn't so serious.

Everywhere you look, everything about this nominee is so concerning. We cannot take this man at his word--something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and time again. But we can take him on his record, which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence, and, by the way--note--he profited from that. And we can take the threat of what he might do seriously, especially given the alarming things that are already happening.

If RFK, Jr., gives you his word of honor that he won't freeze research, guess what. We are already seeing the Trump administration totally upend medical research. Thanks to the Trump funding freeze, NIH hasn't issued any grant awards in weeks.

If RFK, Jr., swears he is not going to take down information about vaccines, he is not going to silence experts, well, don't look now, but the Trump administration has already taken down or changed CDC pages about vaccines. They have already silenced public health experts.

If RFK, Jr., pinky-promises you that he won't undermine medical science or studies and he won't ignore global health threats, well, you might want to sit down for this, but President Trump has completely demolished our global health aid work. He has already completely demolished it.

The fallout is utterly heart-wrenching. Already we know of a woman who died because the USAID-supported hospital she went to for oxygen was forced to discharge her because they got a ``stop work'' order from the Trump administration.

It is not clear if she was the first death caused by Trump's complete freeze, but there is no question she will not be the last.

Let me make a really important point here: It is not just people across the world who will be affected by this. There was a study being done on a new HIV treatment with thousands of volunteers--a study being done, already having thousands of volunteers doing the treatment--but now, without their regular injections, which are cut off by Trump's move, there is going to be too little of the drug in their system to protect those people from HIV, but enough of the drug that, if they contract HIV, it could mutate to become drug resistant.

So for all of the absolutely unhinged conspiracies we have heard about medical research from RFK, Jr., and the like, where is the concern of this actual risk in this actual study happening right now, all because President Trump cut off foreign assistance?

RFK, Jr., has been silent about that risk, silent about how wrong that is. And so even as he is making these empty promises on one hand to some of our colleagues, he is already standing by as President Trump breaks them on the other hand.

Oh, and here is one more: If RFK, Jr., says he is going to consult you on healthcare personnel, please do not be fooled.

Look, I don't know why my colleagues need me to tell them this. I like to think we have some pretty smart people around here. But this vote--RFK, Jr.'s own nomination--this is your consultation on healthcare personnel, not some made-up promise for later. This is the point when you have the most power.

Whatever he might say, you don't get to choose who RFK, Jr., will appoint to this or that. Heck, he doesn't get to choose who President Trump appoints. The decision you get to make--that all of us on this floor get to make--is the decision before us right now.

You get to choose whom you vote to confirm, and you will have to live with that decision. And if you ignore the warning signs and confirm RFK, Jr., then, when the wheels fall off the wagon, you may try to tell yourself you were lied to. But you knew who you were dealing with. You knew who you were dealing with. You knew what he said before and what he has refused to say. You had all the knowledge you needed to do the right thing.

I cannot tell my colleagues enough: This is not a game. This is not a political role without consequence. The Health Secretary has real power over whether Americans can get basic information and care that impacts whether they live or die. As I have tried to drive home throughout this process: Vaccines save lives. That is not a question. It is not a slogan. It is a fact.

If, when parents look to you worried about their newborn, wanting to do what is best for their baby and trusting your advice as a public health leader, if you cannot tell them the same truth that centuries of science and experience tells us, which is that vaccines are safe and effective and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business leading the Department of Health and Human Services--none.

And so just as I did at the hearing, I want to warn all of my colleagues. By merely voting to confirm Mr. Kennedy, we would be telling our constituents: He is worth listening to on vaccines. That alone will get people killed before he even lifts a finger, because he does not even need the levers of power to get people killed, all he needs is that megaphone to affirm his views by voting to confirm him as our highest health official.

Let's not mince words about what that will mean. When babies die from whooping cough because parents weren't sure if the vaccine was safe, will you be able to look them in the eye? when the flu sweeps our nursing homes? when measles sweep through our communities? Will it be worth it?

I will end on this: I am sure there are plenty of Members who know perfectly well just how dangerous it would be to confirm RFK, Jr. They don't need to hear it from me. In fact, some of them even know the danger better than I do.

Here is what I do know: Conscience is a muscle. Courage is a muscle. The less you use them, the more they fade away. So if my colleagues are feeling the pressure from President Trump or if they are feeling the weight of the richest man in the world on their backs on this vote, I would warn them: This will certainly not be the last test we face here in the Senate. Giving in to this pressure now won't make it go away. It won't soften the pressure you face later, and it will not strengthen your resolve when the stakes are higher. It will just show pressure works.

If you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. You will be pushed further and further into accepting things you thought you never would, things you thought you never could.

I think most of my colleagues know what is really at stake here. I think most of my colleagues know what sort of man RFK, Jr., is and what sort of damage he could do if he is confirmed.

There are political realities. We all get that. But there is also right and wrong. There is fact and fiction. There is people staying healthy, and people dying pointlessly, kids dying pointlessly from diseases that we can prevent because they thought Congress took its job of vetting our healthcare Secretary seriously.

So I urge my colleagues to show some courage. I urge them to show some conscience. I urge them to vote no on RFK, Jr.'s, nomination.

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