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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the greatest threat to American prosperity is not food aid to kids in Sudan or a diverse workforce; the greatest threat to our country is the abuse of power by a small group of people--an unelected group of people--who happen to have a billion dollars.

Our Founding Fathers created a government with checks and balances, but they didn't anticipate a U.S. Congress--now currently under Republican control--that would voluntarily give away its constitutional authority. That is where we find ourselves, as hospitals and medical researchers in blue and red States are in chaos over the Trump administration's attempt to usurp Congress's power of the purse.

When Senate Republicans abandon another constitutional responsibility of advice and consent for Cabinet officials, we are presented with such things as the bizarre nomination of Robert Kennedy, Jr., to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

It has been my honor to know members of the Kennedy family and particularly to serve with one of them, Teddy Kennedy. He used to sit right back there. He was an amazing man. He probably had more impact on the legislative agenda and the outcome of legislation than anybody I witnessed in the time I have been in the Senate. I counted him as a friend, and I still mourn his loss. But today we are considering a Kennedy that I don't believe is qualified to follow in his uncle's footsteps.

Health and Human Services is a life-and-death Department of government. Every day, Federal health officials decide whether to approve new medications after they have been proven--clinically tested and proven to be safe and effective. We count on the HHS to initiate recalls of contaminated food. We count on that same Agency to investigate new therapies for cancer clinical trials. We count on HHS to alert doctors about an emergency disease outbreak. Think about the gravity of those situations and how much is vested in the Secretary of that critical Department.

In any of these tasks--critical, often historic tasks--Robert Kennedy, Jr., would find himself unqualified, unfit, and dangerous to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Kennedy masquerades as a crusader for healthy foods and someone who just wants to--``I just want to ask some questions. I just want to study the science.''

America, the Senate, don't be fooled.

Mr. Kennedy has spent the past 30 years ignoring science and lying to parents about vaccines, all the while enriching himself by the doubt he has created.

He declared:

I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get that baby vaccinated.

Can you imagine that for a moment, that he would walk up to a person he didn't know and counsel them: Don't vaccinate your child.

Look at this quote. Does this sound like the kind of person you want to lead the premier health Agency of our Federal Government?

He states:

There's no vaccine that is safe and effective.

No vaccine safe and effective. And he wants to head the Health and Human Services Department?

The organization he founded sells newborn onesies that have printed on them ``Unvaccinated, Unafraid.'' Another one says ``No Vax, No Problem.'' To him, it is a novelty, a game that he can say these things about vaccines that literally have been proven over and over and over again to be safe and save lives.

During his confirmation hearing, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Senator, of course, and a medical doctor who has the distinguished record of service to poor people in his State, practically begged Robert Kennedy, Jr., to state unequivocally that the hepatitis B and measles vaccines do not cause autism. Kennedy couldn't bring himself to do it.

When confronted during his hearings with false statements he has made linking vaccines to autism, he feigned ignorance to decades of research findings and suggested he just needed to be shown the data. Well, that data has been around for decades.

Mr. Kennedy approaches this job with bias--a deadly, dangerous bias-- and he is unwilling to consider information that contradicts his preconceived conspiracies.

If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed, he won't be just speaking to one parent on a hiking trail; he will be speaking to all American families from a podium with a U.S. Government seal on it. That is a terrifying prospect.

Since 1974, the measles vaccine has saved 94 million lives, and since its creation, the smallpox vaccine has saved 200 million lives--2 proven, successful vaccines, and we have to sell them to a man who wants to head the HHS and says that there is no vaccine that is safe and effective?

Measles is one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth. When I was a kid in the fifties going to school, it was common for kids to get measles. I had them. I stayed home from school a few days and usually got through it all after waiting at home for all those red spots to go away. Yet, with Mr. Kennedy's megaphone online, we are seeing the danger of conspiracy theories.

Last year, a record share of kindergartners across America had nonmedical exemption from vaccines. Right now, there is a measles outbreak tearing through Gaines County, TX. Seven kids are hospitalized--all unvaccinated. Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-age children opting out of vaccines. Why are parents in that county in Texas and a few other counties forgoing lifesaving vaccines? Because of fraudsters like Mr. Kennedy.

What about polio? I know that issue personally. I see Senator King on the floor. He remembers it as well. Since 1955, the polio vaccine has prevented 20 million people from becoming paralyzed and saved 1\1/2\ million lives. Most Americans are lucky never to have ever experienced the fear of polio. I remember, as a kid, it scared the hell out of us. A kid could go to school healthy and be paralyzed at dinnertime.

A constituent of mine, Mary Ellen from Union County, wrote to me. Mary Ellen said:

When I was in kindergarten, my best friend disappeared for weeks. When I asked about her, people shook their heads-- saying polio. When she returned, she couldn't walk without heavy leg braces. . . . We could hear her cry and scream with pain.

I remember that era--iron lungs, leg braces, paralysis, and worse.

Had Mr. Kennedy been our Nation's Health Secretary at that time, would American families have access today to lifesaving measles and polio vaccines? I am afraid the answer is clearly no. This isn't speculation; look at the record.

Mr. Kennedy and his associates have filed petitions with the Food and Drug Administration to remove the COVID, hepatitis B, and polio vaccines from the market.

In 2019, Mr. Kennedy flew to Samoa during a measles outbreak to question whether the vaccines themselves were causing the illness. As a result of that, 83 people died in Samoa.

When asked by Senator Warren, Mr. Kennedy said he would not do anything differently about that dangerous trip. Eighty-three people died as he spread those falsehoods about the vaccine.

Senator Cassidy aptly wondered:

Does a 70-year-old man who spent decades criticizing vaccines and was financially vested in finding fault . . . can he change his [attitude]?

Mr. President, I am sorry, but we know the answer.

Listen, I understand we have a great health system in this country, but I also understand it is flawed in many ways. I spent years in my Senate and House career to lower drug prices, rein in Big Pharma's influence, and stop Big Tobacco from peddling poison to our kids. But just because he might talk about the right problems doesn't mean Mr. Kennedy has the right solutions. In fact, over 2 days of hearings, he did not offer a single concrete idea on how to improve the delivery of primary care or preventive healthcare services.

It was clear Mr. Kennedy didn't understand the difference between Medicaid and Medicare. Mr. President, I will tell you, that is an issue that you take up in Congress 101.

Nobody believes Kennedy will stand up to President Trump or Elon Musk on medical research.

I understand the urge to shake things up, to address failures in our healthcare system, but Mr. Kennedy brings an unacceptable prejudice that will only cause harm and be dangerous to American families.

Neil Steinberg writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. He wrote that when you are claiming you want to ``study'' the issue where the science is settled, that is code for dismissing facts that don't serve your personal bias.

I fear there is a sense that being an outsider is qualification enough, but how far could Senate Republicans be willing to go if they pursue that dangerous path? Make no mistake, if the political tables were turned and it were Democrats proposing this man for this job, he wouldn't get a single Republican vote in the Senate. He would be decried as a pro-choice, anti-vax, uninformed, conspiracy theorist who trades on his family name to peddle dangerous misinformation that benefits him financially. And guess what. This nominee is all of those things. But because he was nominated by President Trump and has the MAGA seal of approval, my Republican colleagues can't wait to march down and support his nomination.

Many of them secretly, privately, quietly know better. Some of them are doctors or parents themselves who trusted doctors to vaccinate their kids or people who spent their lives trying to really improve our health system. They know Mr. Kennedy is not the right choice for the job, and they know our children will suffer the most if he becomes HHS Secretary. I hope they will find the courage to join me and reject his nomination.

Let me add this point that is related to this issue, and I will make it brief. On Friday, the Trump administration issued an illegal order to impose an arbitrary cap of 15 percent on ``indirect costs'' that the NIH pays to grantees for essential research expenses.

Without this funding for specialized equipment, data processing, safety materials, and the maintenance of labs, universities and hospitals nationwide will not be able to afford the technology that allows them to continue lifesaving research.

This is a critical moment in America's history. After the progress that we have made, after the leadership we have shown, are we going to, under this new President, turn our backs on medical research? God forbid. If you go through the misfortune of a terrible diagnosis for yourself or someone you love, you pray that you can then ask the doctor: Is there anything--a new medicine, a new cure, a new surgical procedure? And you are hoping that medical researchers lead that answer to yes that one moment in your life.

In 2017--the last time President Trump attempted to cut NIH funding-- the now-House Appropriations Committee chair, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, called the proposal ``arbitrary, unreasonable, and ultimately destructive of the research enterprise.'' Chairman Cole understood that cutting funding means clinical trials will be delayed, new breakthroughs in cures will be put off, and promising researchers will get discouraged and leave the field.

A constituent and doctor from Palos Heights, IL, wrote to me:

I care about this issue because I know new research on immunology kept my stage-4-cancer-patient wife alive for 10 years, enough to see our youngest son graduate from high school.

This sudden, indiscriminate cut to medical research violates Federal law, which blocks NIH from deviating from its current indirect cost policy.

Thankfully, my attorney general in Illinois, Kwame Raoul, and 21 other States filed a Federal lawsuit to temporarily halt this senseless cut.

Remember, tweets from Elon Musk forced a bipartisan pediatric cancer research bill to be cut from a government spending bill just a few weeks ago. Now Mr. Musk is at it again; only this time, he is targeting cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. If Elon Musk were to get sick, I will bet the richest man in the world would find the doctor he wanted. I am sure he would. For the rest of us, for the parents facing a devastating diagnosis of someone we love, this is a cruel political decision.

A University of Chicago researcher put it this way:

This attack on the very structure of . . . academic research . . . is threatening a system that every other country in the world has tried to reproduce. . . . It seems spiteful and targeted at those of us who just want to contribute to a better society.

Mr. President, I don't know that this will continue to be a problem and challenge, but I promise you this: As long as I have the power to stand and speak out in favor of the National Institutes of Health, I am going to do it.

This country is a great country. It has greatness that includes medical research--maybe the best in the world. Why in the world would we give up on that? And why would we choose someone so bizarre to head up the Health and Human Services Agency and trust with him life-or-death decisions? It is a bad choice.

I will be voting to oppose Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and doing everything in my power to restore the spending for medical research in America.

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