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Floor Speech

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Ms. ALSOBROOKS. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, I had the opportunity to question Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the President's nominee to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

I asked Mr. Kennedy, Jr., a simple question: What different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received?

I asked this question because just 3 years ago, Kennedy said:

We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to Whites, because their immune system is better than ours.

When I asked him this question, Mr. Kennedy referenced a study by Poland, a study he assured me--and not just me but also my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the American people watching--that this study asserted that, indeed, certain races required a different vaccine schedule.

That was a lie. In fact, the study's own author stated the data doesn't support a change in vaccine schedule based on race.

Mr. Kennedy's response was damning, and his response was dangerous. So I followed up following the hearing with a letter and with questions. I wrote to Mr. Kennedy:

During your testimony, you cited ``a series of Poland studies'' that underlie your claims that Black people and White people should have different vaccine schedules. You ended by saying--

In that hearing--

``You don't believe the science? The peer-reviewed studies?'' Well, Mr. Kennedy, I do believe in science and [I] did some digging into the studies you referenced. NPR interviewed the authors of the studies you cited--medical experts with years of experience--and they universally disagreed with your assertions. In fact, Dr. Richard Kennedy of the Mayo Clinic, who was involved in a study you mentioned, made clear that ``the data doesn't support a change in vaccine schedule based on race.'' Dr. Kennedy also stated that your suggestion would be ``twisting the data far beyond what [the studies] actually demonstrate.''

Dr. Gregory Poland, who you mentioned by name during the hearing as doing research supportive of your claim, told NPR that his team ``found `no evidence of increased vaccine side effects' and that any claim of `increased vulnerability' among African Americans who receive the rubella vaccine is `simply not supported by either this study or the science.' ''

NPR quoted Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University as saying [that] your conclusion was `taking it to a very unsafe place' because Black children already have lower vaccination rates than their peers. That is why I said your claims on this issue were dangerous.

[I have to ask you, Mr. Kennedy]: Do you still believe that Black and White individuals should have different vaccination schedules?

Now, you would think that the man who wants to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the man who wants to be tasked with the mission of HHS, which is improving the health, safety, and well-being of America, would provide a thoughtful and nuanced response. It was anything but because, let's be clear, Mr. Kennedy is not a doctor; he is not a scientist. In fact, his only tangential connection to the world of health and science is decades-long activism in questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccines. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised at his curt and dismissive response.

Mr. Kennedy wrote:

If confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking the vaccines but instead seek transparency in these products.

Yet another lie.

Mr. Kennedy's life story is one riddled with quackery and laden with conspiracy theories.

I quote him; when he said:

There's no vaccine that is safe and effective.

I quote:

None of the childhood [vaccines] have ever been studied.

He also said:

They get the shot; that night, they have a fever of 103; they go to sleep; and 3 months later, their brain is gone. This is a Holocaust, what [this country is doing].

I quote:

Autism comes from vaccines.

The polio vaccine given to his generation caused cancer that ``killed many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.

The COVID vaccine was the ``deadliest ever made.''

He also said:

COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

He also said:

There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.

These are all statements made by a man who is asking to be held responsible for a singular mission. The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. It is a task of epic responsibility; a serious job that, when done well, can save hundreds of thousands of lives; a job that, when done poorly, will most certainly cost American lives.

Let us not speak of Mr. Kennedy in a vacuum. We have now held the floor multiple times over the past week over a string of nominees that are dangerous to the American people not because--and I cannot stress this enough--we disagree with their politics or their worldviews. We can have robust policy debate. We can have robust scientific debate. In fact, robust debate has the potential to move us forward as a country. Respectful debate is the hallmark of this body. It is a crucial component of free speech.

I went to law school, and I spent years in the courtroom trying cases and making my arguments before a jury of my peers. Grounding my arguments was a basic set of evidentiary facts. But what we are dealing with here isn't a debate; it is a popularity contest and a test of loyalty.

Mr. Kennedy is not in this position today as the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services because of his vast experience in medicine. Mr. Kennedy is not in this position today because of his deep scientific knowledge. Mr. Kennedy is not in this position today because he has respect for the scientific method. Mr. Kennedy is not in this position today because he respects medicine. Mr. Kennedy, like many of his fellow nominees, is in this position today because of his deep loyalty to the President of the United States.

What makes our job increasingly difficult as Members of the U.S. Senate is that we have the duty to advise and consent. It isn't just a privilege of this Chamber; it is a responsibility to speak for the people of our States as well as the American people as we evaluate the qualifications, the experience, and the temperament of a President's Cabinet nominees.

What is happening on the part of my Republican colleagues is not advice and consent. The sole qualification being assessed is loyalty-- not loyalty to country, not loyalty to the American people, not loyalty to the duties and responsibilities we have been entrusted with by the voters in each of our States. The sole qualification up for assessment is loyalty to the President, and Mr. Kennedy has that in spades.

But loyalty to this President comes at a cost--not a cost to the billionaires, not a cost to the people in this body but at a cost to the American people--Democratic Americans, Republican Americans, Independent Americans, Americans who voted for this President, Americans who did not, and Americans who did not vote at all.

The President has been consistent that he believes the American people delivered him a mandate to carry out his agenda. With respect to the health, safety, and well-being of America--the purview of Health and Human Services--the President believes that cutting funds for medical research into things like cures for cancer is apparently a part of that mandate.

Just this weekend, the President announced massive cuts to NIH--an Agency which I am proud to say has its home in Maryland. The mission of the National Institutes of Health is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. It falls under the very Agency Mr. Kennedy is seeking to run.

Here are what some scientists--people I implore Mr. Kennedy to listen to despite his apparent distaste for the profession--had to say about these massive cuts:

Dr. Richard Huganir, professor and chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in my State of Maryland, said:

We were all just dumbstruck. I'm calling it the apocalypse of American science. This will basically change science as we know it in the [United States]. . . . The bottom line is that we are going to have a lot less resources, which obviously means we are going to have to lay people off and research will be slowed down.

Dr. Otis Brawley, professor of oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Policy, said:

We're going to see health research kneecapped.

Dr. Brawley has actually overseen grants at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the NIH, as well as received them for his cancer research.

He went on to say:

People who are getting treated in clinical trials now for cancer will find many of those trials will close down.

Dr. David J. Skorton, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said:

These are real consequences--longer waits for cures and for diagnosis, slower scientific progress, losing out to competitors around the world, and fewer jobs. Those who are facing any health challenges will suffer from less biomedical research.

Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, a Duke University--my alma mater; go Blue Devils!--professor of medicine who won the Nobel Peace Prize in chemistry in 2012, said:

I think the American people need to understand how devastating it would be if this goes through. A lot of research would just have to stop; I can't imagine that the shortfall could be met from other sources.

NIH funding supports over 600 current and ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins in Maryland. The NIH supports hundreds more critical research projects and clinical trials at the University of Maryland-- clinical trials in cancer, pediatrics and children's health, heart and vascular studies, and the aging brain; research on traumatic brain injury to members of the military, suicide prevention, addiction, and patient safety.

Clinical trials support over 23,000 jobs and $5.7 billion in economic activity in Maryland. These massive cuts will lead to over $200 million in losses to Hopkins and over $50 million in losses to the University of Maryland.

I may not be a Republican voter, but I can assure you, Republicans across our country aren't seeking to stymie progress on a cure for cancer.

By putting the NIH in his crosshairs, the President is targeting some of the most vulnerable Americans: the young child suffering from sickle cell disease; the working mom who is also struggling to care for a parent with Alzheimer's; the family member suffering from an opioid addiction; the father dying of lung cancer--all diseases being actively researched by the NIH.

Disease and suffering do not respect the boundary of partisan politics; they impact each and every American family. It falls in part to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to do everything in his power to get us closer to cures. Instead, I fear we have a nominee before us who is more interested in getting us closer to conspiracies.

With loyalty to the man in the White House as opposed to the health and well-being of the American public, Mr. Kennedy is likely to follow his boss in supporting attacks on Medicaid. This administration and my Republican colleagues are seeking to upend Federal Medicaid financing and are considering per capita caps and repealing Medicaid expansion funding.

Let me make this simple. The Republican framework to cut Medicaid puts nearly 435,000 Marylanders at risk of losing coverage. It will lead to major gaps in healthcare coverage and undermine family economic security. It will put quality care out of reach for more families.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, these are Democratic families; these are Republicans families. That shouldn't matter to the President or to the nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services. All that should matter is that these are proud American families.

The administration's attacks on Medicaid would kick millions of people off their health coverage and force States to make deep cuts to benefits, eligibility, and reimbursement rates. My State can't afford these cuts. Maryland's families can't afford these cuts, as 96 percent of eligible children in Maryland are supported by Medicaid and/or CHIP. Cuts would disproportionately hurt children with the lowest incomes and the highest healthcare needs.

At a time when Americans are struggling under the weight of inflation--scraping to pay for food, gas, and housing--we cannot strip away or cut their health coverage. That is a cruel move that will certainly bankrupt many individuals and families. Many Americans are one catastrophe away from financial ruin, and if you take away their coverage and access to affordable care, it will be realized.

Don't just take it from me; Marylanders have been calling and writing in, demanding that Congress do everything it can to fight against attacks to Medicaid.

Jacqueline from Baltimore shared this with us:

One day, I was at work and passed out in the bathroom. Had to be cut out of the restroom by the firemen. After being in a coma for 12 days, it was determined that I am a diabetic. Having Medicaid saved my life. If I did not have Medicaid or any insurance, I would have been sent home, and who knows what would have happened?

Another constituent from Ellicott City shared this:

My 22-year-old son has autism and a significant cognitive disability. He is a happy, affectionate person who loves being around people and being physically active. Due to behavioral challenges at home, he lives in a group home. This environment is one in which he can be safe and thrive. He also attends a program licensed by the state's Developmental Disability Administration Mondays through Fridays, 9-3. This program provides meaningful day services. Both his group home and day program services are funded through DDA's Medicaid Waiver. Given the cost of my son's services and the services of many other individuals with developmental disabilities, a limit on federal Medicaid dollars would no doubt force Maryland to reduce services. If my son was not able to continue living in his group home, he would become homeless. Another impact of Medicaid cuts could be his healthcare, as he is fully reliant upon Medicaid for his health insurance. He will never be able to work enough hours to draw health insurance benefits, due to his disability.

Such an anecdote should stir all of us to action. It should stir the Members of this body to take more seriously our duty to advise and consent, to push back against a nominee who sees his role as a loyal foot soldier to one American who sits in the White House and not the millions of Americans whose health and healthcare are on the line.

Last week, I looked Mr. Kennedy in the eye, and said I would not be supporting his nomination. I said that his views are so dangerous to our State and to our country; that his voice would be a voice that parents would listen to.

I honored my constitutional duty of advice and consent.

On behalf of every single Marylander who has lost a loved one to disease, every single Marylander who works at NIH or is actively researching cures, every single Marylander who has been led astray by a snake-oil salesman peddling quackery instead of science, I will be voting no on Mr. Kennedy for them.

To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I urge you to think long and hard about the phrase that you believe encapsulates your mandate--``America First.'' If we are not putting the people of this country first, then we are most certainly not putting this country first. ``America First'' cannot exist if the people in this country are too sick to be strong. And when you have someone like Mr. Kennedy responsible for the health of our citizenry, I fear that is where we are headed--dead last, literally and figuratively.

I may not be able to stop this nominee from being confirmed, but I want every Marylander to know that I will never stop fighting for your health and for the health of your loved ones.

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