Respect for Science and Pursuit of Truth

Floor Speech

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Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about a topic that should transcend partisanship: respect for science and the pursuit of truth.

History shows us that when nations embrace science, they grow stronger. When they suppress it, they grow weaker and often less free.

Throughout our history, we have witnessed dictators and authoritarian leaders suppress science and knowledge because it threatened their rule.

In Nazi Germany, Jewish scientists were forced out of universities, and research was put under complete control of the government. The result was not only the loss of a generation of brilliant minds but a society in which truth itself was subjugated to government propaganda.

In Stalin's Soviet Union, biology was condemned as ``bourgeois science.'' Researchers who insisted on facts rather than ideology were imprisoned, killed, or sent to work in slave labor.

Even as far back as Mao's Cultural Revolution, China dismantled academic institutions, silenced experts, and elevated loyalty over knowledge. Generations lost their chance at education, and the nation's progress was stunted.

Mr. Speaker, if we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it. We are witnessing the same pattern repeating in our own lifetime.

In Hungary, Viktor Orban has taken over universities, closed independent institutions, and forced academic programs to shut down when they contradict his political goals.

In Russia, Vladimir Putin has jailed scientists and censored research, all to preserve the illusion of control and strength.

What these regimes have in common is simple: They know that science, at its core, is a challenge to authoritarianism. Science is a search for truth. It cannot be dictated by politicians, so when science becomes an affront to the goals of authoritarian leaders, they attack it, suppress it, deny it, and replace it with propaganda and misinformation.

Here at home, Donald Trump is following the same playbook. He has mocked climate scientists, dismissed decades of evidence, even as Americans suffer record floods, droughts, and wildfires.

Donald Trump has undermined doctors and public health officials by putting the Nation's leading vaccine denier in charge of our public health. Trump has promoted unproven cures for diseases, cut billions in critical research funding, and dismantled advisory boards that create avenues for government to work with scientists to make good policy.

In his 2026 budget, Trump is proposing to eliminate funding for the Administration for Community Living, which supports older and disabled Americans; the Department of Health and Human Services' Prevention and Public Health Fund; the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund; the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, an association of 16 academic centers and children's hospitals dedicated to trials of novel treatments for pediatric brain cancer; and so much more.

We need to understand why this is happening and why Republicans in this Congress are supporting it. These attacks are not random. They are deliberate, and they prove a tendency by this President to emulate the authoritarians of the past and present.

Trump's goal is to erode trust in experts, replace facts with loyalty, and convince Americans that only one man and one government can be trusted to define what is right and what is wrong. When a leader can erase truth and rewrite reality, they can justify anything. They can jail opponents. They can seize power and ignore the judges and the rule of law. They undermine the very essence of democracy itself.

Mr. Speaker, science is not partisan. It is not our political enemy. It is a safeguard against lies and misinformation. When our Nation's top leaders attack it, they are not only rejecting evidence. They are rejecting accountability.

America has always been strongest when we embrace discovery and not denial. When we put researchers, innovators, and problem-solvers to work--from curing polio to sending humans to the Moon and leading breakthroughs in clean energy and technology--our greatness has always come from empowering science, not mocking it.

Trump and Republicans are working to gut these critical advancements. Their tactics echo the worst chapters of history, and they mirror the tactics of authoritarian regimes today. If we fail to call this out, we risk normalizing it.

I believe the American people know what is at stake. They know that progress, safety, and freedom depend on science and truth, and truth cannot be dictated from a bully pulpit.

Defending science means defending democracy. It is about making sure our children inherit a nation that values evidence over propaganda and freedom over fear.

We cannot let authoritarians' attack on truth take root here. We cannot let science become the casualty of politics because if we do, history shows us exactly where that road will lead.

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