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Floor Speech
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Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, I appreciate what the good Senator from Illinois has gone through and enunciated in great clarity.
Our government plays a critical role in informing the public. The American people look to us for trust. They look to us for guidance during the roughest points of our history. They look to us for accurate, factual information so they can have the freedom to raise their families without fear and anxiety.
That trust is broken when partisan officials use their platforms to spread reckless and damaging information. They attempt to overwhelm Americans with views that push anti-science narratives or foreign propaganda often that threatens our national security.
You can't go onto social media anymore without running into a fake headline or some hyperbolic clamor with no source. I mean, for so many people, the more you see, the more you believe, and this leaves Americans dazed and confused, unsure of who to trust and where they can go to get accurate information.
Unfortunately, the new administration has shown a bias towards elevating people who peddle disinformation, spreading seemingly random falsehoods about our voting systems, marginalized groups, or our public health. This has real negative impacts on Americans.
Way back in 1980, I graduated with a master's in Earth sciences. I moved west to work as a geologist. Earth sciences is kind of low on the Pavlov pyramid of science, but I published peer-reviewed studies, and I have a reverence for the scientific process. I think I understand how it works, despite the fact that there are not that many of us left around here anymore. I will be the first to admit that science can sometimes surprise us. It is always evolving. It is why the entire field of science relies on constant evaluation and constant research to continue to make new discoveries or deepen our understanding of complex problems.
Leading with science helps us get the most accurate information we can. Yet the Trump administration's appetite for anti-scientific claims and disinformation is something that, in many ways, threatens all of us. It puts our country at risk.
This morning, the Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence. I voted no on her confirmation. Ms. Gabbard has none of the relevant qualifications or intelligence experience sufficient for this role. Officials from both sides of the aisle have raised concerns about her ability to provide the President with impartial analysis as the Nation's top intelligence officer.
Ms. Gabbard has frequently parroted Russian disinformation. She repeated Russia's erroneous justification for its brutal invasion of Ukraine. She criticized Kyiv's democratic government--a steadfast partner of the United States--and she spread, repeatedly, falsehoods about her own involvement in bioweapons research in Ukraine.
Let's be clear about what this means: An American adversary invades another democracy, and Ms. Gabbard actively pushes their narrative. Either she cannot distinguish fact from fiction or she intentionally chooses to promote false claims. Either scenario should be disqualifying for a Cabinet official, let alone one who is responsible for ensuring the President has accurate and timely intelligence.
As they say, ``He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.''
Regardless of her intentions or what she actually believes, her readiness to champion clear disinformation undermines our national security and puts American servicemembers at risk.
As the Director of National Intelligence, Ms. Gabbard will have full visibility into every threat that the military and civilian personnel who perform these vital missions in Colorado and across the country and around the world are working tirelessly to address. They need leaders-- we need leaders--who base every assessment and decision on accurate intelligence, not propaganda, especially not propaganda from one of the most threatening rivals we have.
President Trump's nominee to the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is another clear example of someone who is willing to overlook facts and science when it is convenient. He has a wide following, and many people look to him for guidance and for leadership. In particular, his ideas of a healthier America appeal to many Coloradans. Indeed, they appeal to me as well.
But make no mistake: Our country can and should be healthier, and we all share a vested effort in that direction. There is a bipartisan appetite to get us there. We should provide better food options and keep unsafe chemicals out of the products that we eat, but we have to be able to do it in tandem with fact-based science and thoughtful policy to protect Americans and to keep them safe.
RFK, Jr., has shown a propensity for anti-science claims. One of his most anti-scientific claims is that autism is caused by childhood vaccines. This is a claim that has been spread through many communities for decades. It is all based on a single paper published back in 1998. That paper was retracted years ago, and there have been hundreds of studies on the nonexistent link between autism and the measles vaccine ever since. They have all--I repeat--they have all had a zero connection between vaccines and the cause of autism. Let me be clear: Every single one found a zero connection. It is settled science.
Vaccines are not only extremely safe; they are extremely effective. Every year, they save millions of lives all around the globe. We have effectively eliminated horrible diseases like polio, and we are making considerable progress toward a vaccine for HIV and for AIDS. In the last hundred years, our country's average life expectancy has increased by 30 years, and 25 of those 30 years are largely attributed to vaccine adoption and clean drinking water. Vaccines not only save lives, but they also make lives healthier and happier, which is as they were intended.
Now, some of the damage from disinformation about vaccines is nearly impossible to undo. Why would anyone accept the results of one debunked paper rather than the conclusions of hundreds of studies that have been conducted since?
It is completely understandable for parents to have questions and concerns about vaccines that their children receive. I know I have as a parent. As a parent of two kids--one who just turned 2 years old--I understand the concern that families feel. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep our kids healthy and safe. We do the best we can with what we have to make them as healthy and happy as possible. People who peddle vaccine skepticism are preying upon parents' very rational fears to advance these conspiracy theories. Parents are trying their hardest to keep their kids safe and healthy, and it is irresponsible for people to plague them with pseudoscience and misinformation when the science has been settled on this for decades. The measles vaccine is safe and does not cause autism.
It is personal for me, too. My son Teddy--now in college-- unfortunately, got pertussis, or whooping cough, when he was 4 months old--before he was able to finish his full vaccination schedule--after he interacted with an unvaccinated child. Because of how rare whooping cough is now, it took us a while to get the correct diagnosis.
Finally, when we got him into Children's Hospital, I remember staying up all night for 2 nights in a row to blast little puffs of oxygen into his coughing face--to snap him out of those coughs--about every 10 minutes and to prevent his oxygen blood levels from dropping too low. It is one of the most frightening experiences of my entire life.
Whooping cough--that disease--is rare because of the vaccine and because of the adoption of that vaccine. America was able to almost completely stamp it out of existence. If we backslide in the number of children getting vaccinated, stories like what happened to my son Teddy are going to become more common and more severe.
When you consistently promote uncertainty in settled science, it begins to raise doubts about all science, and it slows our progress using science against the really big challenges, like a cure for cancer and vaccines for the next pandemic.
In President Trump's first full term--at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic--Operation Warp Speed helped bring vaccines to the public in record time. The National Institutes of Health estimate that Operation Warp Speed saved over 140,000 lives by speeding up the development of vaccines by more than 5 months. When the next pandemic comes along--it is not if; it is when--we are going to need a robust Federal response and preparedness plan. We need the ability to get to a vaccine down to 100 days. We need that plan to be guided by actual science. Otherwise, we obviously endanger the lives and health of all Americans.
The Department of Health and Human Services also oversees Federal medical research as Senator Durbin pointed out. The research has unlocked groundbreaking achievements in public health and will continue to help us cure diseases and work toward solutions for a variety of illnesses. However, the White House announced late last week that they are slashing funding for the National Institutes of Health.
This will have devastating impacts on research projects in Colorado and across the United States, including places in Colorado like CU- Anschutz, Fort Lewis College, and National Jewish Health. Our Colorado institutions are at the forefront of medical research from everything from clinical trials for veterans who are struggling with PTSD to individuals with Down syndrome. These cuts for research institutions, rural hospitals, and our veterans will impact our most vulnerable communities--all this to give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.
Again, I am all for making government more efficient and smaller. If you want to seriously look at how we spend money and where we can cut actual fraud and waste and abuse, I am in. I am game. But I struggle to understand how stripping funding for cancer research or Head Start or hiring programs for law enforcement officers is wasteful. These cuts throughout our government are exaggerated by the extreme nominees who are really ill-equipped and ill-experienced to handle large governmental organizations.
The administration also continues to illegally dismantle Agencies without having congressional approval. They have attempted to freeze Federal funding--something the courts have halted but that the White House continues to pursue. Colorado and the American people are caught in their crosshairs.
I have committed to opposing nominees who pose a genuine threat to Colorado. We have also helped support lawsuits and oppose some of these Executive actions. I would be the first to admit our government isn't perfect. Government never will be. I would be the first to recognize that it takes all of our elected officials to do their duty for the American people and to be truthful and for our constituents to hold us accountable.
The American experiment in democratic government is just too important to confirm people who actively spread disinformation and refuse to follow science. It threatens Coloradans. It puts all of us at risk.
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