National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, when parents send their kids to school, they rightfully expect that they will be safe and protected. Parents expect their kids to bring home knowledge, not polio. They expect them to share stories, not measles. They expect them to get smart, not smallpox.

The reality is, this has been the case for decades because we have had vaccines to safely and efficiently keep students protected against these terrible, terrible diseases.

Unfortunately, there is an extreme movement that relies on conspiracy theories that is trying to overturn commonsense, science, vaccination guidelines, and make children vulnerable to life-threatening illnesses.

Earlier this month, Florida announced it was rolling back longstanding vaccine requirements--longstanding vaccine requirements-- for schools; requirements that have prevented the death of more than 1 million children in the last 30 years alone--1 million children. Think about that number. Protecting them from devastating diseases like measles, polio, and whooping cough.

Removing these safeguards will cost kids' lives. There is no other way of putting it, parents will bury their children.

It will bring us back to a time before vaccines, when parents prayed their child would be spared from polio so they wouldn't have to spend the rest of their life in an iron lung. That is not freedom. Living inside of an iron lung because someone refused to get a vaccine is anything but being free.

As my dad used to say: When you don't have your health, you don't have anything. These extreme policies will lead people to die as a result.

Let's also be clear: This is not what parents want. In fact, more than 80 percent of parents support vaccine requirements for schools to prevent diseases like polio, measles; to prevent diseases like mumps, rubella, smallpox, hepatitis, and a number of other diseases that we don't even think about anymore on a daily basis.

That support crosses party lines. In fact, three-quarters of Republican parents agree schools should require vaccines for measles and polio, including 73 percent of parents who identify themselves with the MAGA movement.

Even my Republican colleagues have spoken up about this, saying:

It's a horrible idea. . . . It's been policy.

I am going to quote again:

Vaccinations have proven to be helpful in preventing the spread of [diseases like] measles, polio, and other things.

This was a Republican:

My children are vaccinated, my grandchildren are vaccinated. I don't agree with that.

These extreme policies are not only way out of step with science, they are way out of step with the very families that these Florida politicians claim to represent.

What is happening in Florida is not an isolated case. And what happens there, it won't stay there. It is part of a broader effort to weaken our Nation's health. Disease knows no boundary and is, unfortunately, an equal opportunity predator.

At the heart of this dangerous misinformation campaign are people like the Secretary of Health and Human Services, R.F.K., Jr., who has built a career by spreading lies about vaccines and spreading rhetoric that has been debunked time and time again by doctors and scientists.

In fact, he fired, just recently, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she allegedly stood up to his anti-vax efforts. Since then, the CDC has made it practically impossible for healthy adults in many States to receive the COVID-19 vaccination if they so choose--if they so choose.

This goes beyond getting rid of COVID vaccine mandates. It actually imposes a new Republican mandate that no one can receive the vaccine, and it does not matter even if they want to. This goes above and beyond, forcing everyone to bend to their will. It is not freedom. It is imposing their radical beliefs on everyone else.

Because of Secretary Kennedy's willingness to push lies and conspiracies that will hurt our health, the Senate must speak out against what he is doing and what Florida is doing and make it clear we support making vaccines accessible and that we support making sure our children are vaccinated against polio, smallpox, rubella, and other life-threatening illnesses.

Washington Republicans cannot and should not stay silent while extremists in Washington and in Florida are trying to make it more likely that children--children--won't receive critical vaccines.

That is why I introduced a resolution opposing these extreme policies, reaffirming something the overwhelming majority of Americans already know, and this is this: Vaccines save lives. Vaccines protect kids. Vaccines protect every American, and every American deserves the freedom to access them.

This is about the safety of our children. It is about making sure diseases like polio and smallpox remain eradicated. It is about standing up for the overwhelming majority of parents--Republican, Democrat, Independent alike--who want their children just protected from these horrific, terrible illnesses.

So, today, I am calling on my colleagues in the Senate to join me in this effort. Let's send a strong bipartisan message that we reject this extreme, dangerous agenda.

If all of my Republican colleagues disagree with what Florida is doing, let's do more than just give a disapproving statement to reporters. They have something they can do about it. I am going to give them the opportunity--Washington Republicans--to do something to protect our kids. Let's pass my resolution by unanimous consent right now to protect the children of the United States.

Res. 389, which was submitted earlier today; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, this is very disappointing. We know that childhood diseases have been eradicated in so many ways because of these vaccinations. And we often know that the way that they are available or the way they are paid for relies on the recommendations from the U.S. Government. So we do put children at risk, and we are saying, in the case of COVID, that people may not get them.

But I remain disappointed. This is really disappointing. By blocking my resolution, Washington Republicans are saying they are OK with extreme policies that can make vaccinations inaccessible, unaffordable, roll back vaccine requirements for schoolchildren, and put us all at risk for diseases like measles, polio, and smallpox, to our families, to our communities, to those most vulnerable.

I don't believe this is a partisan issue. Disease is an equal opportunity predator. Diagnosis can change your life this fast. So it isn't partisan.

The overwhelming majority of parents, including three-quarters of Republicans, support school vaccine requirements. Blocking my resolution ignores parents, ignores science, and it puts kids at risk.

Before some Washington Republicans try to insinuate that because they didn't personally block this resolution, they may support it--it has been introduced, and everyone is welcome to support it today. So if you believe schoolchildren should be able to access vaccines, you can cosponsor my resolution today.

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Ms. ROSEN. I am willing to work with you in a bipartisan way to help address this issue that is hurting our country.

But for some things, this isn't the way we make laws. There is a process. A bill is introduced. It gets reviewed and considered by committee, brought to the floor, worked on with colleagues. We may have different considerations in Nevada than we do in Ohio versus Mr. President's State of Utah.

So what we want to do is work together in a bipartisan way, not rush this complex legislation through by unanimous consent. So you have my commitment to move forward. I am with you, but I am objecting today.
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