Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Floor Speech

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Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, it is truly astounding that the Senate stands on the brink of confirming Mr. Kennedy to lead America's public health Agencies.

If the Senate weren't gripped in this soon to be infamous period of total capitulation, I don't think this nominee would have made it as far as a hearing. If I told you a couple of years ago: There is a guy who has been nominated to run public health nationwide. His job will be to protect American families from death and disease. He is going to run the whole public health system--Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the NIH, all of it. He will decide how we protect the country from infectious disease. He will set the rules for every hospital in the country. He will decide what healthcare and medicines get covered by Medicare. He will manage our response in the event of a pandemic.

And then I told you: Well, there are a few concerns about this nominee. First of all, zero relevant experience. He is a trial lawyer, a politician from a famous family, no medical or scientific background. He has never run a hospital or a health system or anything like that.

Second of all, he has said some pretty wild stuff about public health over and over and over again, like, he proposed that COVID-19 might be ``ethnically targeted'' to spare Jews--``ethnically targeted'' to spare Jews. He said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon.

For years, he has been persuading American families against routine childhood immunizations. He has compared the work of the CDC to ``Nazi death camps.''

If a couple of years ago I told you all of that and I told you the Senate was about to put America's health in this man's hands, you would probably tell me the Senate has lost its mind.

By the way, it is OK to challenge scientific consensus, and it is not just OK, it is necessary to question the way we manage our healthcare system and our food system. They are not working. But that is not the issue here. The issue for the Senate is, are we going to put in charge of American public health a man with no relevant credentials, who for decades seems to have latched on to just about every piece of half- baked conspiracist pseudoscience he has come across?

I mentioned earlier that Mr. Kennedy compared the CDC's work to ``Nazi death camps.'' These aren't comments I take lightly given my ancestors were exterminated in Nazi death camps and the folks who work at the CDC are my constituents.

And Mr. Kennedy, if confirmed, will take charge of HHS and, therefore, the CDC, at a moment when an onslaught of political attacks by the new administration have thrown the CDC into chaos. Huge amounts of CDC data and reporting were simply disappeared from the internet-- cancer data, maternal mortality data.

There has been an unprecedented interruption of the ``Mortality and Morbidity Report.'' That is data that has been consistently reported since the 1930s.

Public reporting about bird flu has been interrupted, while it rips through chicken flocks and has been documented jumping to humans.

The administration tried to freeze funding for the CDC's flagship infectious disease monitoring program, the one that detects outbreaks before they are out of control, and that effort was stopped only by a court order.

And we are hearing threats to gut the CDCs workforce, at a time when the country needs the CDC firing on all cylinders to prevent deadly outbreaks of infectious disease.

If this administration guts and gags the CDC, who is going to defend the Nation from Ebola. Who is going to protect kids from measles? Who is going to save us from TB?

And then there is this crusade against health equity--``equity,'' an unspeakable word now under our new official MAGA state ideology. Health equity--that means trying to address the huge race and class disparities in health outcomes that plague our country. For example, it means making sure clinical trials include minority groups so we get good data on how to save all lives, not just some lives. It means figuring out how to get women in remote, rural communities prenatal checkups. It means addressing the fact that maternal mortality for Black women in Georgia is three times higher than for White women.

Trying to make healthcare in America equitable--``equitable,'' meaning dealing fairly with all concerned, no matter how much money you have or the color of your skin or where you are from--that is important work. The quality of your healthcare shouldn't depend on how you look or how rich you are or where you grew up. And yet this obvious point and the work to address it is suddenly now not just politically incorrect; it is politically forbidden. And the people who do this work are being forced onto administrative leave. They are being shunned, and they are being publicly threatened.

Mr. President, here are excerpts from a letter I received today from a constituent.

Good afternoon, Senator Ossoff. I write to you today with a heavy heart and a profound sense of concern.

After decades of dedicated service to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--working under both Republican and Democratic administrations to improve vaccine uptake, advance health equity, and fight the disparities that have long plagued underserved communities--I now find myself facing an alarming and deeply troubling situation.

My constituent continues:

This morning, I was placed on the DEI watch list web site and publicly identified as a target. Compounding this distressing reality, my personal and internal CDC-related information has been exposed on a public web site, placing me in immediate danger. I have since received unexpected deliveries to my home, and my personal information is now in the hands of individuals aligned with the views of the current administration--individuals whose intentions I cannot discern but whose actions are already proving to be invasive and threatening.

The letter goes on.

I am left with no choice but to remain vigilant, prayerful, and confined to my own home--effectively a prisoner for doing my duty as a public health professional. The fear and uncertainty that have overtaken my daily life are not just a personal burden but a dire warning about the dangers faced by those who commit themselves to the work of health equity and public service. Even more distressing is the silence and inaction of those who should be stepping in to address this injustice.

That is a letter I received today from a constituent who has served at the CDC for decades and who has now been doxed and publicly targeted and fears for her safety, apparently because working to reduce health disparities for communities and people who have lousy access to healthcare and poor health outcomes makes you a political target.

And this constituent isn't alone. There are dozens more CDC workers in Georgia who have faithfully served our country for years and who face the very same harassment and the same threats.

This is ugly and menacing stuff, and the license for it comes directly from the President of the United States.

Tomorrow morning, unless Senate Republicans can summon a shred of courage, the Senate may be poised to confirm someone to lead America's public health system who is obviously unqualified and unfit.

As we speak, the world's flagship disease control Agency is in chaos and under political attack, and public servants who dare to try to improve health outcomes for the poor and disadvantaged fear for their safety--all brought to you by the President who said: Maybe bleach injections could cure COVID.

None of this bodes well for the health and safety of the American people. I will oppose the Kennedy nomination. It is not too late for my colleagues gripped by political fear to do the same.

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