has the heart and experience to do this important job. thank you, i yield the floor. judiciary committee meets to vote on whether to send kash patel'ination for fbi director to the full senate for consideration. this comes after an initial vo was delayed by one week at the request of democrats on the mmittee, who continue to call for a second confirmation hearg with mr. patel. you can watch the committee vote live at 9 a.m. ete on sp 3, c-span now, our free mobile veo app or online at c-span.org. ♪♪ >> democracy, it isn't just an idea, it's a process, a process shaped by leaders, elected to the highest offices, and entrusted to a select few regarding its basic principles.

it's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span giving you your democracy unfiltered. >> now, we head live now to the u.s. capitol where today the senate is voting on two of president trump's cabinet nominees, confirming tulsi gabbard to be the director of national intelligence and limited debate for robert f. kennedy, jr. for health and human services. you're watching live coverage right here on c-span2. ...

the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. black, will open the senate with prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god of mystery and clarity, open our eyes to see the unexpected ways you come to us. lord, reveal to us your presence in the beauties of nature, in the promises of sacred scriptures, and in the challenges that deepen our dependence on you. make clear your plans to our

lawmakers and infuse them with confidence in your power. inspire them to use their talents as instruments of liberation and healing. lord, keep them purposeful and expectant so they will experience a deeper friendship with you in the living of their days. we pray in your abiding name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in the recitation of the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nominations which the. the clerk: will report. the clerk: nomination, office of the director of national intelligence, tulsi gabbard of hawaii to be director. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: for the third time, i come to the senate floor to ask my democrat colleagues if they'll respect the democrats on the senate agriculture

committee. that committee voted unanimously to approve mrs. rollins to be secretary of agriculture and there should be no reason to spend 30 hours of debate and would show disrespect for the democrats on the agriculture committee not to approve her unless we did it by unanimous consent. on another point, the champions of the 59th super bowl will celebrate with a parade on valentine's day in philadelphia. i can say with pride that the state of iowa is celebrating this victory with coop er dejon a hometown hero and former hawk eye. on super bowl sunday, he made history on his 22nd birthday in his rookie season with the

philadelphia eagles. cooper grew up in the northeast iowa farming -- northwest iowa farming community of odobolt, population 985. he was a four-star varsity athlete in high school, competing with the falcons. he went to the university of iowa, becoming a two-time all-american cornerback. last year cooper was drafted by the philadelphia eagles. as you would expect, his hometown had a watch party on sunday. they called it cooper bowl and boy, did cooper shine. he had a thrilling 38-yard pick six in the second quarter. cooper made super bowl history becoming the first player to

intercept a pass or score a touchdown on his birthday. the young man was spotted entering the super dome in new orleans. you know what? wearing his high school letterman jacket. he also had a 712 to 215 printed on his cleats and homage to his hometown area code and his new philadelphia area code. so congratulations, coop er dejean. you're a role model for young athletes to dream big and put in the work. a small-town kid from western iowa made history and made all iowans proud. we look forward to watching you shine for many years to come.

i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> this is not a time for political theater and partisan attacks. the american people are watching. can't sit on the sideline. the subcommittee we will fight the war on ways, shoulder to shoulder with president trump, elon musk and the doge team. this week we turn our attention to improper payments by the federal government including in medicaid and medicare. i'm looking forward to what we find out and how to solve this crisis. i now yield to the ranking member for her opening statement. >> good morning, everyone. thank you, madam chair and welcome to the very first subcommittee on government efficiency. assess that this committee is cast with ensuring the

government and the vital services that it provides from healthcare to national security actually work for the american people. this is a topic we worked on for many, many years here in the oversight committee in which i personally have worked on as a formal civil servant who worked at the office of management and budget. for anyone who is at work on these issues you know there's ample ground for bipartisan work to make the government work better for the american people and to ensure it operates in a more efficient manner. in fact, all of us here on the democratic side are ready to roll up our sleeves and to get to work. just last week i had the opportunity to sit down with the chairwoman and to discuss these very issues and opportunities to work across the aisle. and like the chairwoman to share some of her background with me, i grew up in in a working fa. i grew up working for small

mom-and-pop family businesses and understand the necessity of balancing the books, making sure we can deliver and fiscal responsibility. that's why today's hearing is focused on making sure the federal government is doing what it's supposed you and digging into the more than $236 billion in improper payments that we see going out the door every single year. and we need to get to the bottom of that. we need to make sure we're putting into place rigorous oversight and controls to prevent fraud and abuse and, of course, to go after bad actors. that is why myself and the oversight ranking member takano late and other democratic members of the committee said ideas that we want to work on together that would root out waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize and streamline our agencies deliver a program for the american people. use programs that are important for our seniors and our families

and healthcare and education system. we need bipartisan solutions to get across the finish line. we've been trying over the last several years to get these ideas out of this committee but, unfortunately, the committee's priorities haven't felt for the current majority. i hope we can fix that this congress. we can't sit here today and begin like everything is normal and this is just another hearing on government efficiency. all you have to do is look across this room and see that it is not a normal hearing. because while were sitting here donald trump and elon musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government. shattering federal agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital to the safety and well-being of our communities, and hacking are sensitive data system. in fact, while we were here discussing government waste on the house floor yesterday, elon

musk was standing behind the resolute desk in the oval office with the president and the administration was making emergency court appeals to try to unlock his teams access to the treasury payment system which they claim that using to study improper payments which is a topic of this hearing. here's the thing. the treasury payment system which include social security information and bank accounts for millions and data that's critical national security and the operation of the u.s. government and payments that go out the door annually equal to almost one-fifth of the u.s. economy is not with the payment decisions are made because that happens inside the agencies that are being dismantled and the people who investigate waste, fraud, and abuse of these agencies are the inspector general who donald trump fired his first week in office in midnight massacre. we have to ask ourselves, what

is really going on here? why do republicans block elon musk from appearing before the break committee last week? why is administration so eager to let elon musk and his hackers to have access to proprietary and private information in the treasury payment system? why are our colleagues across the aisle shielding them as their clearly breaking the law? and why is the vice president trying to rewrite the u.s. constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary? so obviously we're in the oversight committee and we have a lot of questions. and so do the american people. especially while our colleagues across the aisle are trying to scoop up the savings from the dismantling of these agencies to pay for the largest permanent tax break in american history for billionaires and the folks

that they are helping on their side of the aisle. let me close by saying this. directly to mr. elon musk. we are well aware that you are eager to engage with members of congress on social media but we're not here to play. if you have serious desire to engage in democracy and transparency, we welcome you to the oversight committee. , testify in front of the american people under oath. because we want to know what you are up to. if you're interested in talking to us then please join us here in the people's house in the house of representatives. with that i yield back. >> the gentlelady yield. president trump site an executive order on his first day in office called establishing and 11 the president department of government efficiency, del center renamed an office in a the white house that was actually established by president obama in 2014 call the

u.s. digital service. president trump can have elon musk into his oval office anytime he likes. i now recognize the chairman of the oversight committee chairman james comer. >> thank thank you, chairwoe for holding today's hearing to launch a war on waste. president trump one and a local and site with clear ident trump' was at the capitol yesterday to update republican senators on the progress the administration's making on arresting and deporting criminals here illegally. it's difficult to believe some of the individuals they've arrested were still in the country. members of violent international gangs, individuals arrested for murder, for rape, for kidnapping, for drug traf trafficking, for sexual crimes involving children, and for human smuggling.

again, it is staggering to think that these criminals were out there on our nation's streets, and our communities will be safer places without these individuals. mr. president, since day one of his administration, president trump has been fulfilling his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and secure our border, and it's good to see. immigration is a key part of our country's story. immigrants have made untold contributions to our country. but we need to ensure that immigration is done legally, for both the safety of our country and to preserve respect for the rule of law. the chaos of the last four years was unsustainable, and it was dangerous. we had ten million individuals flood across our southern border. we had millions, millions of undocumented individuals take up residence in our country, more than the population of a number of u.s. states. law enforcement officials were overwhelmed, and officers were

pulled off of essential work of guarding the border just to process the flood of migrants. border cities and other cities across the united states struggled to deal with the influx, and all of this chaos was an invitation to terrorists, to smugglers, to drug cartels, and other dangerous individuals to enter our country. so i'm tremendously proud and grateful for the incredible amount of work the president has done so far to make it clear that illegal migration will no longer be tolerated. mr. president, there's a lot more work to do, and some of that is going to require congress's help. mr. holeman, president trump's border czar made clear yesterday that border patrol and immigration and customs enforcement need additional resources to secure our border and to get criminals off our streets. we intend to deliver.

today, senator lindsey graham, chairman of the senate budget committee, kicks off the markup of a resolution to lay the foundation for a transformational investment in border security and immigration enforcement and in our national defense. we'll provide resources to increase the number of immigration and customs enforcement officers and border patrol agents, expand detention space, facilitate deportations of dangerous individuals, and obtain the barriers and technology that we need to secure the border. mr. president, for too long our country has tolerated rampant illegal immigration. that ends now. i'm grateful for everything the president is doing to protect our streets and uphold the law and the republican-led congress will ensure that the administration has the resources needed to continue this important work.

mr. president, in a few minutes we're going to be voting on a couple of nominees. the first one is tulsi gabbard to be the director of the dni. the second one will be a cloture vote to proceed to the nomination of bobby kennedy to be the secretary of health and human services. now, what i observe, what's interesting about both of these nominees, is that both are former democrats. in fact, a year ago, a year ago they were democrats. i would argue they've seen the light, they've become republicans, and now they've been nominated by president trump to fill important posts within his administration. but i make that observation only because there's a lot of talk these days about loyalty oaths and allegiance and purity tests for people to be considered good enough to be in the so-called maga movement.

in other words, the republican party. and yet, when it comes to democrats a very different standard seems to be being applied here. because both of these people were former democrats. in fact, frankly, they probably agree with the democrat party here in the senate on a lot of the positions that they hold. and yet they had the temerity to come out and support positions that perhaps ran contrary to some of the positions held by particularly the progressive wing of the democrat party in this country. in the case of rfk, coming out for some positions that run counter to the orthodoxy of the health care so-called establ establishment, or in the case of ms. gabbard different views perhaps about national security matters than those held by a lot of democrats certainly here in this chamber and the progressive movement in the country.

it hearkens back to two other democrats who pretty much got pushed out of their party here in the united states senate for holding views that ran contrary to the majority view of the progressive wing of the democrat party. those two democrats were joe manchin and kirsten sinema. in the case of kirsten sinema, she was viewed, i think, by democrats as perhaps too free market. she was viewed as pro-business, pro-investment, and as pro-jobs, lighter regulatory touch, lighter tax policy, pro-energy policy. in the case of joe manchin, he had pro -- i should say he had what i would say are accurate views with respect to energy development in this country, in other words, making america energy dominant, a view shared by many in our party, including our president, and for that he

was viewed as too conservative to be a true democrat. and so joe manchin and kirsten sinema end ed up getting pushed out of the democrat party here in the united states senate. now, their ultimate cardinal sin, however, in the case of manchin, he was pro-energy in a party that is dominated by climate, green, all those, however adjectives you use to describe it. his views ran contrary. he tried to cut a keel with the -- a deal with the democrat in the inflation reduction act to find out they went back on him and the deal wasn't what he thought he had agreed to. so, his views were out of the step, out of the mainstream of the democrat party, as were kirste kirsten sinema's. but their cardinal sin, mr. president, was that they voted against getting rid of the legislative filibuster.

a view that was held by, up until just a few years ago, a majority of democrats here in the united states senate. there was a letter signed, which i signed the other night, had 32 democrat signatures on it pleading with the leadership mere in the senate not to abandon the senate tradition and heritage with respect to the filibuster, to maintain the heritage and tradition the senate has for open debate and for representation ever the minority for the requirements for collaboration and bipartisanship when it comes to moving sequential legislation. those are the things that the filibuster traditionally was about. up until a few years ago, most of my colleagues on the other side, a majority on the other side, signed a letter articulating their views that that ought to be the position of the united states senate. well, they tried to push it because they weren't getting the outcomes they wanted on a couple of pieces of legislation when they had the majority a couple years ago, and they forced a vote on changing the rules,

breaking the rules, to get rid of the legislative filibuster and enact an agenda more consistent with their liking. there were two people that voted against it on their side, kirsten sinema and joe manchin. for that cardinal sin, they were essentially ostracized, and to this day, mr. president, the democrat party continues to hold a position now, very contrary to the one they held just a few years ago, about getting rid of the legislative filibuster. why do they want to do that? because they want to enact an agenda, a progressive leftist agenda, which the american people voted against in november. as recently as last summer at the democrat convention, the democrat leader basically laid out the things they want to do. first he said we're going to get rid of the filibuster because we have the votes now.

manc manchin and sinema are gone. i've talked to the democrats we think we'll elect, we have 51. he predicted a clean sweep, the house, senate, and white house. they would get rid of the legislative filibuster and the first thing is federalize the elections in this country. then they said they were going to enshrine abortion rights in law. there have been many on their side who have talked about packing the supreme court, about allowing statehood for puerto rico and washington, d.c., all elements of the agenda that they want to accomplish through getting rid of the legislative filibuster. that was articulated by the democrat leader as recently as the democrat convention last summer. intentions that they had to get rid of the legislative filibuster so they, they, their party, is in control, that they could do the things they wanted to do, that they felt that the american people were asking them to do. well, turns out there was an

election between last summer and now in which the american people spoke otherwise. they had a very different view than the democrats on a whole range of issues, issues on which i think the left and democrat party is completely out of step with the american people. not the least of which is allowing boys to play girls sports. that's a 90% issue with the american people. the house passed legislation on it. we will vote on it at some point in the future. i just can't imagine, i speak as a dad of daughters who were both female athletes, one is in her high school and college hall of fame, i don't know how anybody, and this is where i say there's a certain intuitive common sense the american people have, and they voted for that, made that clear in the election this last fall, and so i say that again just to remind people when you hear this perspective about how republicans don't have any room for dissent, they've all got to

be in lockstep. believe me, we've got a lot of dissent on our side. try leading the republican conference. the democrats, on the other hand, you have a dissenting view, particularly on something like the filibuster, sorry, you're out of here. so mr. president, today it's ironic to me that we are going to vote on two nominees, president trump's nominees, to be secretary of department of health and human services and to be the director of national intel intelligence, who are former democrats, and i'll be surprised, i would like to be surprised, but i don't believe there's going to be a single democrat that votes for either of the two people who less than a year ago were members of their party. in some cases members of their party that goes back decades. the kennedy family? the kennedy family, the democrat politics in america. you have two nominees who are

democrats a year ago, but because they articulate views now, or demonstrated i did sent from the -- i did sent from the ideology -- dissent of the ideology of the democrat party no longer can get even one democrat to vote for them here on the floor of the united states senate. i'm hoping to be surprised. that vote is going to happen in about 30 minutes on tulsi gabbard to be director of national intelligence, and then shortly after that we'll have a cloture vote on robert f. kennedy to be secretary of department of health and human services. in 50e69 of those cases -- in each of those cases, you got democrats, in good standing as recently as a year ago, who have been pushed out, come now they're nominees by president trump for positions within his administration, and you're not going to see a single democrat vote for them. but we will confirm them, and we'll get these people into

these positions as soon as possible. and in answer, i think the mandate given by the american people in november, that is they want a different track in this country, a different direction, they have a different set of priorities than is being articulated here in the united states senate. mr. president, we also had recently a vote on laken riley, and that was probably the most glaring example again of democrats' willingness to filibuster something they wanted to get rid of two years ago, they wanted to get rid of the legislative filibuster. we get the majority, first time we put a bill on the floor. what do they do? they filibuster it. so here we are, slowing down niece noms -- slowing down these noms, full 30 hours on tulsi gabbard. i assume they'll do the same on rfk. these are people that are going to be confirmed and again working in this administration to implement the agenda that the president of the united states has articulated and the one that

he carried to the voters in this last election, an election in which the voters gave him a decisive majority at the polls. so mr. president, i hope again i'm wrong, i hope we have a bipartisan vote today on either or both of these nominees, butly tell you that based on my assessment -- but i will tell you that based on my assessment of where the democrat party is in this country, it will come as a great surprise to me if that's the case. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democrat leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, let me begin with a quote from president trump during his campaign for the presidency. he said, when i win, i will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one. well, today is day 23, and prices are up 3%. let me reiterate. donald trump said during his campaign, prices would come down starting on day one. it's day 23, and prices are up 3%. donald trump is already breaking his promise to the american pe people. inflation is the number one concern of most americans, and

donald trump said he'd fight inflation, but he hasn't. groceries are up 0.5%. chicken, pork, steak are all more expensive. egg prices are up 15% from last month. gas prices are up 2% from last month. the price of used cars are up. the price of heating your home is up. housing costs are through the roof, even though republicans are racing to privatize fannie and freddie. well, welcome to the age of trumpflation. donald trump is breaking his promise to lower costs. this was the in rnumber one issn the campaign, to most people, and donald trump said starting on day one, prices are going to start coming down. well, they're up 3%. it's day 20. welcome again to the age of trumpflation.

donald trump knows he doesn't have real solutions to bringing costs down, despite his campaign promises. so what is he doing? he's distracting and diverting the american people, or trying to, with issues that have nothing to do with bringing prices down. he's distracting and diverting with issues like changing the name of the gulf of mexico, talking about the changing the chairman of the board of the kennedy center, talking about building hotels in gaza, talking about the panama canal, talking about an exing canada. these are not the things americans signed up for. no way. if there's one mandate donald trump had, it was to fight inflation on day one, like he promised to do. but he's not doing that. he's focused on everything else, except what americans want most. meanwhile, americans woke up this morning to bad news for their bank accounts. they woke up to a grim reality

that donald trump is not going to keep his promise to lower costs. they woke up, americans woke up, to an era of trumpflation. unfortunately, this is only the beginning. on doge, we've all agreed, i've said it many times, cutting waste in government and increasing efficiency an is a good thing, but what doge is doing is something else entirely. doge is axe meanwhile, of course, trumpflation continues to get worse. if donald trump and doge want to focus on efficiency, they should do it as the constitution

maintains and the founders wisely prescribed, through congress. the founders knew we need a debate, we needed sunlight, we needed transparency. so we can see what programs can be improved or changed and what should be maintained. instead, doge is taking a meat axe and cutting vital programs vert jewelly -- virtually no one outside of doge would call walletful. cut now -- would call wasteful. i was in albany on monday visiting community health centers. these chc's, as they are known, community health centers, are among the most effective and efficient users of government funding, and they rely on federal dollars to provide high-quality affordable health care for working people, far cheaper than people who show up at a hospital. they're particularly important in rural areas, where people have no options, but many of

these community health centers have had their funding cut tempo temporarily, and too many are still unable to access funding. some have even had to close. that means many working people have no option for high-quality affordable health care near them. is this doge's idea of cutting wasteful spending, taking the parts of the health care system that deliver health care to people who need help, with lower costs, cut it? without asking a question? without examining what community health centers do? meat axe. meat axe. that's what they're doing. or let's look at programs like pepfar, in the a.i.d. program. they want to cut the whole a.i.d.

other programs stop things like ebola in central africa. if ebola is left unchecked, it could spread to america, from uganda to around the world today. there are flights from kampala all over the world. even if you oppose foreign aid on a policy ground, most people believe that pepfar and the programs fighting ebola in central africa are effective and cost effective and make us more secure. god forbid ebola spreads to the united states. you want to see what government waste looks like? it doesn't look like those two programs. thanks to doge, here's what government waste looks like that doge has created. thanks to doge, half a billion dollars in food assistance

through usaid is sitting in ports and ships in warehouses unable to move. and so the bottom line is simple. if you want to make cuts, you have sunlight, transparency, debate in congress, not lawlessness, not breaking the law because you feel -- well, you know more than anybody else. not by implementing cuts and asking questions later. it's a formula for disaster when you do things like that. these policies will hurt children. they'll hurt seniors. they'll hurt veterans. and so many other of our friends and neighbors. on reconciliation, today senate republicans schemed to pass tax cuts for the ultrarich. takes the next important step. later today, chairman graham of the budget committee will hold a markup of the republicans' first reconciliation bill. republicans claim that their bill will be fully paid for, but that means republicans are

laying the groundwork to gut things like nutrition assistance, funding for nursing homes, student debt support, and to kill clean energy jobs that ploy americans in red and -- employ americans if red and blue states alike. there's been so much focus on how republicans are going to pass their signature bills, should it be one bill, should it be two bills? at the end of the day, talking about process is a sideshow. this one bills, two bills or a hundred bills is meaningless. what they're trying to do is give tax cuts to the very wealthy, further tax cuts to the very wealthy who are doing just fine. and they're hurting average americans by cutting programs, again meat axe, slashing across the board to do it. they could carve up their bill -- they could carve up one bill, two bills, five bills, as i said, it doesn't matter.

they could carve it up in their agenda however they want. they can change the order of policies that he -- that they tackle first, but the end game does not change. this is all about clearing the path to cutting taxes for billionaires and making the american people foot the bill. the whole thing, the whole big enterprise is aimed with one goal in mind, tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. large tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, as i said, are doing fine. not as fine as the afternoon american who just saw their inflation go up 3%. plain and simple again, what is their plan? funnel more wealth to the ultrawealthy while slashing everything else to the bone. gutting medicare and medicaid, yanking school lunches from kids, blocking prescription drug reforms which make drugs cheaper for the average american, cutting funding for cancer research, one of the most popular things we do, cutting

research for semiconductor manufacturing, letting china get ahead of us. no matter how they dress it up, no matter what spin they can put on it, republicans' agenda boils down to this. tax cuts for the wealthy, deep, painful cuts for everybody else. finally, on the nomination we're about to vote on in a little while, the gabbard nomination. every single democrat i am proud to say will oppose the nomination of tulsi gabbard because we simply cannot in good conscience trust our most classified secrets to someone who echoes russian propaganda and falls for conspiracy theories. so before my republican colleagues cast their vote to confirm ms. gabbard, i hope they're going to think carefully one last time because america's safe, america's security is at stake.

is ms. gabbard really who republicans want leading intelligence agencies? i'll bet not. is she the best person we could find for the important position of director of national intelligence? of all the people who know the intelligence world, i know some will be conservative like donald trump would want, but they wouldn't have the huge question marks about them that ms. gabbard has. do republicans truly believe, i say to my colleagues, that someone who is so carelessly and repeatedly echoed russian propaganda and sympathized with the likes of putin and assad is the right person for this job? i ask my republican colleagues to think about the safety of the american people and the concern of our allies and the threats posed by vladimir putin before

casting this vote. objectively, i think most senators would agree there are better choices to lead national intelligence. you know what my guess is? if we had a secret ballot, gabbard might get ten votes and 40 against her from the other side. people know. that's why they raise so many questions. but donald trump and elon musk evidently threaten them and they're changing their view. the director of national intelligence must be strong against america's adversaries. this is an amazing one. how could we put someone in when you hear about this? after assad used chemical weapons against his own people in 2017 and 2018, tulsi gabbard turned against u.s. intelligence -- by the way, at that point donald trump was president -- and sided with fringe conspiracy theorists to cast doubt on these two specific

incidents. i want to be clear about how strange and troubling this episode was. on one side you had the entire u.s. intelligence ecosystem, the intelligence system of the french government, the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons all saying the same thing, that assad used chemical weapons against his own people in 2017 and 2018. the findings were not speculation. they were based on satellite imagery, witness account, medical experts. in other words, the kind of intelligence data that ms. gabbard would be responsible for evaluating if she, god forbid, gets this job. on the other side of all these experts and all this evidence, fact based, you had tulsi gabbard relying on the judgment of an individual who had appeared on russian-funded propaganda outlets questioning those findings. shielding assad for his inhumane

conduct. i i have to say i have never heard of a dirn -- it dni nominee who is ready to accept russian disinformation so easily. and of course i'm troubled by her long record of showing weakness against russia when it came to putin's invasion of ukraine. on the night russia invaded ukraine and launched the first full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation in europe since world war ii, what was ms. gabbard doing? she was on twitter at 11:30 p.m. blaming nato and the united states for starting the war in ukraine when putin invaded ukraine. she said the war could have been avoided had nato and the u.s. accommodated putin. that's who we want as head of national intelligence? by the way, russian state tv lee

it that willy aired these comments -- lethally aired these comments shortly thereafter. and now republicans want to make this person top u.s. intelligence chief. can you believe it? i really don't believe my republican colleagues believe she's the right choice. i really don't. i know the pressures that have been placed upon them. there's word in the newspapers and other places that people were told their elections would be opposed, et cetera. who knows. but we do know that there was tremendous pressure on republican senators. but sometimes my republican colleagues, you have to buck and stand up to the pressure and say no, this is the wrong choice, definitely the wrong choice for america. again i'd repeat, if there were secret ballot, i would bet that gabbard would get no more than ten votes in the senate. ten, maybe.

so the nomination of ms. gabbard is one of those moments. so, again, before republicans cast their vote to confirm ms. gabbard today, please, please, please answer one simple question -- do you care more about doing the right thing for our national security or doing whatever is necessary to keep donald trump happy? i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: majority whip. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i just heard the

minority leader, the senior senator from new york, senator schumer, on this floor talking about today's consumer price index data, and stunningly, he points to president trump as the reason for it. let me just correct the record, mr. president. the price data that senator schumer is complaining about is from the final days of the joe biden administration. those are the numbers that are out today. the final days of the biden admini administration. and certainly everyone in wyoming and everyone in your home state in oklahoma knows that under the biden administration, the democrats' prices of goods and groceries, gasoline, the things we need in our everyday life, prices rose more than 20% under joe biden. high prices are joe biden's parting gift and his lasting

legacy. they are the party of open borders and high prices. that's why they lost the election. so here we have the senate minority leader, now in the minority -- used to be in the majority. the reason he's in the majority is because of the high prices brought on the people in this country as a result of that administration and the numbers out today are reflective of the final days of that administration. painfully high prices, they came from democrats' reckless overspending and their policies, and we're from energy states, that was anti-american energy policies. those are the things that senate democrats voted for repeatedly and stood behind and supported. republicans are focused on making life more affordable for families all across this country, hardworking families. and we have a plan to unleash american energy, and that way we can keep lowering prices for american families. i can never forget when joe

biden said he wanted to prioritize climate over energy that was available, affordable, and reliable. it was a disaster for the country and resulted in defeat of the democrats. today, mr. president, i come to the floor also to talk about confirmation votes, and the senate will soon vote on the confirmation of robert f. kennedy jr. to be the secretary of the department of health and human services. america needs to be healthies. i'm a doctor, worked with patients over 20 years as a surgeon in wyoming. the problem is our nations faces a chronic disease epidemic, kron diseases including diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure. chronic diseases, they are so widespread that managing them accounts for almost 90% of the federal health care spending in this country. and we spend a lot of our gross

national product on health care. nearly three in five americans, adults, and one in four american children are impacted by this. our health care system tries to address the problem, but yet by incentivizing procedures over prevention and paying for them, it often fails to address what we need to do effectively as well as economically. as a result, americans are actually becoming less healthy. we need to put america on the path to good health. president trump has selected robert f. kennedy jr. to do just that, to make america healthy again. mr. kennedy will bring a fresh set of ideas and eyes to important debates surrounding our nation's public health. he's going to be a voice for the vast number of americans who were failed by the previous admini administration. the previous administration silenced reasoned debate.

i believe that mr. kennedy is going to deliver accountability and transparency. for americans, that means more choices and better information. it means healthy foods and healthy competition for patients. it means lower costs and higher quality. it means increased access to care. access is so critical in my home state of wyoming, with so many rural and frontier communities, people long distances from health care. it also means honest, unbiased and trust worthy scientific research that is both innovative as well as accountable to the american people. people want the truth, want want to know what the facts are and make decisions for themselves. this is mr. kennedy's bold vision to revitalize america's bill of health. he's very clear about his mission, has been throughout. mission, as he told the finance committee, is to end the chronic

disease epidemic and make america healthy again. apparently that's not enough for the senate democrats. senator catherine cortez masto of nevada, she was actually dismissive of him at the senate finance committee. i heard her say to mr. kennedy, so that's the only reason why you're at hhs, to address this one issue? this one issue? chronic disease epidemic that is plaguing our nation is the key issue to our health care. respectfully addressing chronic disease is what we ought to be talking about for health care for the people of our country. mr. kennedy had to testify and did testify before two separate senate committees as part of his confirmation. most people being confirmed and coming to the senate only testify at one committee. he responded to rigorous questions from both republicans and democrats, and he answered those questions with candor and

with clarity. he told the senate help committee that his leadership approach was collaborative. he pledged to empower scientists to do their jobs, not to impose, as he said, preordained opinions on anybody at hhs. he was also clear that he supports vaccines. he told the finance committee, i support the measles vaccine, i support the polio vaccine, i will do nothing as hhs secretary, he said, that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking those vaccines. the senate has every reason to take him at his word. mr. kennedy is a bold choice. he is prohealth, provaccine and protransparency. he's the right choice to make america healthy again. i look forward to voting to confirm him. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak for six minutes followed by senator wyden for five minutes, senator crapo for five minutes and senator schumer for two minutes prior to the scheduled vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. warner: thank you. mr. president, i rise once more

to oppose the nomination of tulsi gabbard to be the director of national intelligence. as i've said repeatedly, i have great respect for ms. gabbard's over 20 years of service to our nation both in and out of uniform. i am, however, profoundly worried that she lacks the qualifications or judgments to be dni. the job of the director of national intelligence is not a duty to be taken lightly. the incumbent serves as the principal intelligence advisor to the president and also bears the weight of responsibility to prevent another 9/11. the dni must also represent the tens of thousands of intelligence professionals who around the world often toil in anonymity. they serve as america's first line of defense against terrorists, transnational criminals, and adversarial

nations who wish to do us harm. and she must also represent america to our allies as a trust l worth partner. unfortunately through her own words and actions, ms. gabbard has demonstrated she's not up to the task. she took the word of syrian dictator bashar al-assad against the assessments of our own department of defense, state department and intelligence community. when she claimed that, when she denied that assad used chemical weapons against his own people. she knowingly met with the syrian cleric who has vocally threatened to conduct serial bomb attacks against the united states. she sought to blame the united states and nato, united states and nato for putin's illegal

invasion of ukraine. she publicly praised and defended edward snowden when he compromised our nation's most sensitive collection sources and methods, then ran off to hide in china and russia. those compromises put at risk not only our intelligence, but our men and women in uniform in places like iraq and afghanistan. and just last week, even with repeated inquiries from her republican colleagues, she refused to call snowden a traitor. speaking of china, when asked about tiktok at her confirmation hearing, she refused to acknowledge the threat posed by china owning a social media company that reaches 170 million americans. and all the way up until she was nominated to be dni, she publicly advocated for the wholesale elimination of fisa

so2, 702. 702 is a tool that we use actively in the intelligence domain, a tool that contributes literally 60% of the information that makes up the president's daily brief. that daily brief which will also fall under her responsibility should she be confirmed. the environment facing a new dni today is complicated and fraught with challenges. not only have the traditional threats persisted, china, russia, iran, north korea, but p we've seen increased threats from terrorism, cyber actions and transnational criminal organizations. all the while, the intelligence community itself is under attack. some of our most senior and experienced law enforcement and intelligence professionals are being asked to take political litmus tests, and those who are

seen as insignificantly loyal are being fired or forced to resign. whole agencies are being eliminated and funding impounded in flagrant defiance of the constitution, which only gives the congress, us here in this body, the power of the purse. and unvetted, unqualified individuals illegally burrowing into the classified and sensitive information, this very action jeopardizing our national security and violating americans' privacy. these doge bros seem to have no restriction on them at all, and i've seen no evidence that ms. gabbard is prepared to deal with this onslaught. therefore, i must oppose her nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same.

mr. crapo: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. crapo: thank you, mr. president. in a moment, the senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the nomination of robert f. kennedy jr. to be secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services. i rise to encourage my colleagues to support this motion. as secretary of hhs, mr. kennedy would oversee our nation's expansive health care system, from sources of coverage to advancements of public health. mr. kennedy's decades of experience and deep drive to advocate on behalf of consumers will set a patient-centered tone at the department. as he has demonstrated in both public and private settings, mr. kennedy is committed to reorie reorienting our health care

approach and restoring faith in our institutions. his passion for addressing america's chronic disease epidemic will save lives, reduce costs, and establish a foundation for a healthier, stronger country. his dedication to transparency will empower patients to make more informed decisions about their health care and form a responsive rapport with congress. as mr. kennedy stated during his hearing, if congress asked me for information, you will get it immediately. over the course of his vetting process, mr. kennedy met with dozens of members on both sides of the aisle, spoke with bipartisan senate finance committee staff, appeared before two committee hearings, and answered over 900 questions for the record. not to mention presenting thousands of pages of documents. mr. kennedy has gone through the

same office of government ethics process as all nominees who come before the finance committee, and has received support for his efforts. similar to all other nominees, we have a letter from the director of the office of government ethics stating, based thereon, we believe that this nominee is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest. he even amend the his -- amended his ethics agreement, going beyond what was required by the office of government ethics in response to a request from one of the committee members. i urge my colleagues to join me in advancing this nomination so we can begin to make our country healthier. thank you, mr. chairman.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i know i spoke a little while ago on tulsi gabbard, but i feel so strongly

i just wanted to make one last plea to my republican colleagues. in a moment, the senate will vote to confirm tulsi gabbard as the next director of national intel intelligence. every single democrat, i am really proud to say, will oppose this awful nomination, because we simply cannot in good conscience trust our most classified secrets to someone who echos russian propaganda and falls for conspiracy theories. it's hard to believe, of all the talented and capable people, that this is the person nominated. it's a person who has said things like the ukraine invasion was caused by the united states, not by putin. it's somebody who has denied assad's use of chemical weapons, despite all of the intelligence.

it's someone who echos russian propaganda and falls for crazy conspiracy theories. i'd say to my republican colleagues, please think once again about this nomination. this endangers our security. and my guess is if a secret ballot were cast on tulsi gabbard, maybe she'd get ten votes. you all know how bad she is. and so i know that there are -- that people feel they want to please the president and his nomination, but there are certain times you have to buck and stand up and say, no, this is just a very bad choice for america, and the nomination of ms. gabbard is simply one of those. i plead with my colleagues. i know it's the last minute, to think twice, to vote no as we all will vote, because this is such an awful nomination, who will endanger our national

security and our intelligence operations throughout the country and the world. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i rise to oppose the nomination of robert f. kennedy jr. to be the -- the presiding officer: the senate is there a quorum call. mr. wyden: i ask to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, i rise to oppose the nomination of robert f. kennedy jr. to be the secretary of the department of health and human services. let me put it very bluntly to my colleagues -- a vote for robert kennedy for

this position is a vote for a sicker america, and there's irony that that judgment, considering mr. kennedy is the figurehead of a mass movement known as make america healthy again. but on issue after issue mr. kennedy refused to stand up for policies that will keep americans healthy and out of the hospital, from vaccines to affordable health insurance to lower drug prices to women's reproductive health care, mr. kennedy, through several hearings, ducked and dodged and weaved instead of answering the basic questions that came from senators of both parties. when he did answer, he demonstrated a shocking lack of knowledge about the federal health programs he will be charged with running and a willful desire to mislead senators about his views on science matters like vaccine safety. the only conclusion i'm left with is that he stands steadfastly by the outlandish views he's expressed over his

two-decade career as an anti-vaccine crusader, and he's fully prepared to implement the republican health care agenda. that agenda boils down to putting big pharma and insurance companies back in charge while leaving millions of american families to fend for themselves without affordable care. i want to be clear about this. going back to my days as director of the gray panthers, which is what i did before i went into public service, i can tell you, mr. president, this is the least qualified nominee to ever be nominated for a position of this importance. so for the next day and night, senate democrats are going to be out on this floor telling the american people why. our colleagues on the other side of the aisle still have an opportunity to turn away from a dangerous path. if they do not, my view is their legacy will be tarnished by setbacks in science that will echo in america for decades.

as i mentioned, i spent countless hours as a young man working with seniors to navigate the newly created medicare program and help them avoid predatory insurance company tactics that remain all too common today. to me and many other americans, healt health care, colleagues, is the most important issue. because if you and your loved ones don't have their health, everything else goes by the board. and the reality is we need to make sure that americans have the best and most affordable health care possible, rather than having a handful of health care companies being gobbled up in the entire market for health insurance, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and even doctors. the results have been great for shareholder profits and disastrous for american families. costs keep climbing, the act of getting a doctor's appointment or filing insurance claim seems to have become an olympic sport in much of america.

the system delays and denies care and rakes in profits while patients are left wondering how they're going to get the care they need. so the question before the senate now is whether we want america's chief health officer to be somebody who's going to take on those corporate interests, somebody who's going to fight tooth and nail to lower costs and improve care, somebody who's going to work to protect and improve the federal health care programs that tens of millions of americans rely on and not gut. everything i've seen and heard from mr. kennedy over these last few weeks has led me, colleagues, to conclude he is not the person that america needs. americans have little reason to take mr. kennedy at his word. they do, however, have every reason to believe mr. kennedy will continue to embrace and amplify anti-vaccine programs. every reason to believe that he will back up donald trump's abortion ban. and every reason exists to examine the prospect that he

will be a rub irstamp for the republican -- a rubber stamp for the republican health agenda that will rip away the health care of so many americans. over the next 24 hours, democrats are going to show the american people why these concerns are so serious. i yield the floor, and i urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination. the presiding officer: all time has expired. the question occurs on the gabbard nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso.

vote: mr. barrasso. the clerk: mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. the clerk: mr. blumenthal.

ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn.

ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty.

ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim.

mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. the clerk: ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley.

mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed.

mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida.

mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock.

ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barrasso, britt, budd, cassidy, cotton, crapo, curtis, daines, grassley, johnson, justice, lankford, moran, mullin, risch, rounds, schmitt,

scott of south carolina, sheehy, tillis, tuberville. mr. hoeven, aye. senators voting in the negative -- alsobrooks, coons, hassan, heinrich, kim, klobuchar, lujan, murray, peters, schumer, shaheen, van hollen, wyden. mr. mccormick, aye. mr. ricketts, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, aye. mrs. fischer, aye.

mr. schiff, no. mr. boozman, aye. mr. schatz, no. mr. marshall, aye. mr. gallego, no.

the clerk: mr. thune, aye. the clerk: ms. duckworth, no.

ms. ernst, aye. ms. collins, aye. ms. hirono, no. mr. merkley, no. ms. cortez masto, no.

the clerk: mr. ossoff, no. the clerk: mr. welch, no.

the clerk: ms. baldwin, no. ms. cantwell, no. the clerk: mr. kelly, no.

the clerk: mr. graham, aye. mrs. moody, aye. mr. warner, no. ms. lummis, aye.

the clerk: ms. blunt rochester, no. mr. husted, aye. ms. slotkin, no.

mrs. capito, aye.

the clerk: mr. murphy, no. the clerk: mr. blumenthal, no.

the clerk: mr. scott of florida, aye. mr. sullivan, aye. mr. hickenlooper, no. the clerk: mr. sanders, no. mr. cornyn, aye.

the clerk: mr. king, no. mr. reed, no. mr. markey, no. ms. warren, no. mr. cramer, aye. mr. paul, aye.

the clerk: mr. fetterman, no.

the clerk: mr. wicker, aye. the clerk: mr. mcconnell, no.

the clerk: mr. moreno, aye. the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, no. the clerk: mr. whitehouse, no.

the clerk: mr. booker, no.

the clerk: mr. kaine, no. ms. rosen, no. mr. durbin, no. mr. warnock, no. the clerk: ms. smith, no. the clerk: mr. kennedy, aye.

the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. vote: the clerk: mr. lee, aye.

the clerk: mr. cruz, aye. the clerk: mr. padilla, no. mr. young, aye. ms. murkowski, aye.

the clerk: mr. bennet, no.

the clerk: mr. hawley, aye. the presiding officer: the yeas are 52, the nays are 48. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon

the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the majority leader. mr. thune: i move to waive the mandatory quorum with respect to the kennedy nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture the clerk: cloture we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of robert f. kennedy jr., of california, to be secretary of health and human services, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by mandatory consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of robert f. kennedy jr., of california, to be secretary of health and human services shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso.

the clerk: mr. bennet.

mrs. blackburn. the clerk: mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell.

mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley.

mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick.

mr. merkley. mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis.

mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barasso, capito, cramer, curtis, fischer, hagerty, hawley, husted, justice, kennedy, lee, mcconnell, mccormick, moran, moreno, mullin, murkowski, paul, ricketts, scott of florida, sheehy, shun, tillis -- thune, police and -- tillis and

tuberville. ms. collins, aye. senators voting in the negative -- alsobrooks, bennet, blunt rochester, coons, durbin, fetterman, gallego, hassan, heinrich, kim, lujan, reed, rosen, schatz, shaheen, slotkin, and smith. mr. cornyn, aye. mr. cruz, aye.

the clerk: ms. duckworth, no. ms. cantwell, no.

vote: the clerk: mr. boozman, aye.

the clerk: ms. cortez masto, no.

the clerk: mr. peters, no. ms. ernst, aye. the clerk: mr. johnson, aye. the clerk: mr. murphy, no. mr. wyden, no.

mr. cotton, aye. mr. crapo, aye. the clerk: mr. daines, aye. mr. king, no.

the clerk: mr. hoeven, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, aye.

the clerk: mrs. blackburn, aye. ms. warren, no. the clerk: mrs. britt, aye. mr. welch, no. mr. rounds, aye.

the clerk: mr. hickenlooper, no.

the clerk: mr. kelly, no. mrs. moody, aye.

the clerk: mr. lankford, aye. the clerk: mr. wicker, aye. mr. cassidy, aye.

the clerk: mr. warner, no. mr. sanders, no.

the clerk: mr. schiff, no. mr. whitehouse, no. mr. marshall, aye. ms. baldwin, no. the clerk: mr. warnock, no.

the clerk: mr. schumer, no. the clerk: mrs. murray, no.

the clerk: mr. merkley, no.

the clerk: mr. graham, aye. the clerk: mr. markey, no.

the clerk: mr. blumenthal, no. the clerk: mr. grassley, aye.

the clerk: mr. scott of south carolina, aye. mr. ossoff, no.

the clerk: mr. mr. padilla: no. ms. klobuchar, no. the clerk: ms. gillibrand, no.

the clerk: mr. risch, aye. mr. schmitt, aye.

the clerk: mr. van hollen, no.

the clerk: mr. budd, aye.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: ms. lummis, aye.

the clerk: mr. young, aye.

vote: the clerk: ms. hirono, no.

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 53. the nays are 47. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: department of health and human services, robert f. kennedy jr. of california to be secretary. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, as we begin this discussion that is so important to america, i thought i would just mention the conversation i had recently with a couple of young medical & said, you know, we know you're interested in health care and been involved in this.

i'm so appreciative of senator murray who is going to pick up on the health care issue, an area where she has very substantial experience and expertise. i thought these medical students summed up this debate because they said, the way we see this kennedy nomination, it's not just a vote for next week or even next year. this is a vote with enormous impact for decades because mr. kennedy, according to these young students, these young medical students, has a long record of essentially being antiscience and what we're going to do in our discussion of his nomination is go into that and other issues. and suffice it to say during his confirmation hearings and they have been in multiple committees now, he was given ample opportunity from members on both

sides of the dais to clarify his views on science and vaccines and our nation's biggest federal health programs. and we're going to in the hours ahead touch on each of those and why mr. kennedy's failure to demonstrate a basic understanding of these important issues that impact america's health make him a uniquely unqualified nominee to become our nation's chief health care officer. and in beginning my remarks, mr. president, i wanted to say that ever since my days with the great panthers, i always felt that health care is the most important issue. if you and your loved ones don't have your health, everything just go by the board. so that just reinforces what these young medical students were saying about the decision we're going to make in future

hours with respect to mr. kennedy. i'm going to start with perhaps the most dangerous aspect of his long history, and that's his embrace and ever indication of vaccine -- amplification of vaccine conspiracy theories. he's made a lucrative career out of sowing doubt in the minds of parents when it comes to vaccinating their kids. his, quote, nonprofit, the children's health defense, is solely dedicated to peddling these conspiracies. you can even get merch, baby oncies that read unvaksed, unafraid. no vaks, no problem. he's been the attorney of record on at least five cases against drug companies for their vaccines which he didn't disclose to ethics officials and refused to answer questions about. he also refused to give up his 10% stake in any settlement agreements, instead passing them off to his son.

and he refused to recuse himself from taking any action that might affect his family's financial interest. a vaccine that has become routine for young people about 20 years ago is involved here and since then it's successfully cut cervical cancer rates into just a fraction of what they were before the drug came to market. all of this adds up to a future hhs secretary who stands to profit off undermining the vaccine and as a result, raise cervical cancer rates. to quote my republican colleague, senator cassidy, a physician, mr. kennedy is financially vested in finding fault with vaccines. he also played a big role in one of the most deadly measle outbreaks in recent history. in 2019 he traveled to samoa and used his platform to promote his anti-vax agenda taking aim at the measles vaccine. the vaccine rate in samoa

plum plummeted. by 2019 measles had torn through the population making more than 5700 people sick and 80 people were killed, most of them young kids. during his confirmation hearing, at the senate finance committee, mr. kennedy told me, and i quote, we don't know what was tilling them, speaking about those 83 deaths. but just last week, the director general of the health of samoa called this claim by mr. kennedy, and i quote here, a total fabrication. so, mr. president, and colleagues, just put that in your thinking about this consideration. mr. kennedy saying that he didn't know what was killing these young people in samoa and the director general of the health of samoa called mr. kennedy's claim a total fabrication. a recent analysis showed that mr. kennedy has made 114

separate appearances in the last four years where he took anti-vaccine views or spread misinformation about the efficacy of the vaccines. in 36 of these instances, mr. kennedy directly linked vaccines to autism. instead of providing the committee with clarity or reassurances about his decades-long career peddling vaccine conspiracies, what did mr. kennedy do? he dodged, he weaved, he bobbed and gave no indication that as health and human services secretary he would stand by subtle science that surrounds vaccine. as hhs secretary, mr. kennedy would have a huge amount of control over how vaccines are promoted and administered in our country. he could issue orders that discourage doctors from sharing information with parents and patients about lifesaving vaccines. he could issue an order that discourages schools from talking

about or even requiring vaccines. he could rubber stamp an executive order from donald trump that defunds the centers for disease control which is essentially the agency in charge of getting americans up to date information about vaccines and when to get them. just imagine you're a parent scrolling on instagram or listening to a podcast. you hear this gentleman speaking passionately about the danger of vaccines. maybe you do a bit of research and lo and behold, you find this is the secretary of health and human services, america's chief health care guy. you think to yourself, huh, this guy must know what he's talking about. maybe he's right when he's questioning if vaccines are safe and effective. so the seed of doubt on vaccines gets planted. and then at your kid's next wellness exam, you decide not to get them their next round of vaccinations. a few months later you're taking them on a trip to disneyland

say, for spring break where countless parents like you have heard the same medical advice from the same person and you, too, decided against vaccinating your kids. it only takes one of those kids carrying a deadly disease like measles for an outbreak to begin. and pretty soon after what was supposed to be the spring break trip of your dreams, your kid sadly is showing symptoms. what follows then is a slew of doctors appointment, maybe even a stay in the hospital, sleepiness nights, missed days at work and school, not to mention dread and fear for your child's well-being. meanwhile countless other parents around the country that went on the same trip to disneyland are now experiencing the same nightmare you are, sowing seed of doubt in the minds of just a few people can have massive consequences for communities across the country. and it is not hypothetical. right now there's a measles

outbreak in texas that's sickened more than a dozen kids. the number of kindergartners showing up with an exemption for required vaccinations jumped to a record high last fall. the two facts are connected. and mr. kennedy and his allies can take the credit for it. now, mr. kennedy is fond of saying he's not making recommendations about whether parents should vaccinate their kids. he's just asking questions and giving people choices. that's a slippery tactic used by conspiracy theorists to dodge any real responsibility for their words and actions and it's absurd coming from somebody who is about to be confirmed for a job that is entirely about making recommendations. mr. kennedy is also fond of saying that if somebody shows him the science to prove he's wrong, well then he'll apologize and retract his statements. but when somebody does show him

the science proves him wrong, he just brushes it aside and basically will not accept it as fact. once again to quote my republican colleague bill cassidy directly, to improve the health of americans or undermine it, always asking for more evidence and never accepting the evidence that's there, that's why bill cassidy told mr. kennedy he was struggling with his nomination. so even republicans like senator cassidy, someone i work with frequently on the finance committee and respect his opinion, he knows how dangerous this guy is. and it is not hyperbole to say when mr. kennedy becomes health and human services secretary, if he does, and as control -- and has control over how our government rolls out vaccines or make them available, i believe kids in america will die. and when disease rates for illnesses that have effective vaccines start to rise in states across the country and hospitalizations and death tolls mount, my republican colleagues

are going to regret voting if they do for mr. kennedy today or early this morning. and when disease rates for illnesses that have effective vaccines start to rise in states across the country and death tolls mount, again we will see republicans say this is something that could have been prevented. what else should we have done? republicans will be responsible for every child that dies as a result of not being vaccinated because it seems they care more about staying in the good graces of donald trump than they do about protecting the lives of kids. again this is something they will regret for years to come. now, before we turn to senator murray's remarks, i'd just like to touch on mr. kennedy's stance on reproductive choice, an area where senator murray has been our leader for years and years in the senate. in the lead up to and during his failed presidential campaign, mr. kennedy repeatedly claimed he supported a woman's right to

make her own health care decisions. less than a year ago in an instagram post on june 14 last year, he stated that he supports the emerging consensus if this country that abortion should be legal up to a certain number of weeks. fast forward to his confirmation again at the senate finance committee a few weeks ago. he was pressed repeated will i by democrats about his stance on abortion. instead of clarifying, mr. kennedy defaulted to a clearly rehearsed talking point that he repeated over and over again. quote, i agree with president trump. every abortion is a tragedy. that answer doesn't give us much clarity. it's certainly telling. mr. kennedy has a long history of changing his stance on health care issue after health care issue to whatever position benefits him at the moment. as long as it earns him power or it earns him a paycheck, as far as i can tell mr. kennedy will believe or at least pretend to

believe whatever you want him to. he's willing to give up his principles and all of his beliefs that women and mothers are better equipped to make their own health care decisions than politicians, and it's all about, as we talked about on this floor, staying in donald trump's orbit of power. while mr. kennedy recites rehearsed talking points on the subject, this is an issue that has had real, deadly consequences for women as senator murray has said again and again. donald trump spent his first term packing the supreme court with right-wing extremists, willing to rip away the reproductive freedoms guaranteed to us under roe v. wade. in the wake of the supreme court's gutting roe, millions of women living in red states have had their reproductive freedoms ripped away from them all due to donald trump. in the years since the overturn of roe, there have been countless headlines about the consequences of these abortion bans. women bleeding out in parking lots or emergency rooms because they were denied care. women becoming infertile and losing their ability to have

kids in the future because they couldn't get care. and in the very worst case, women dying. so it should horrify every american that we don't actually know where mr. kennedy stands. the man who could become our nation's chief health care officer, we don't know where he stands on reproductive health. short of perhaps just saying he's a yes man for anything donald trump tells him to do. so i think at this point, mr. president, i want to yield the floor to my friend and colleague from washington state because she knows so much about the challenge of ensuring that women's reproductive health services are being protected and as secretary of health and human services, mr. kennedy could do so much damage to the well-being and health that women -- of women. i'm very pleased to be able to yield the floor to her to discuss that and other pressing issues.

mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. thank you to my colleague from oregon who very clearly stated why this nominee is not someone who should be holding the time of secretary of health and human services, and i appreciate all of his work on this and his wise words. i hope everyone heeds them. mr. president, the american people are watching now, with alarm, because the vast majority of people know vaccines are safe, they're effective, they are lifesaving. but we are now on the verge of confirming as our nation's highest health official a man who has spent considerable time, money and effort undermining that basic fact, a man who has abused his platform by refusing to acknowledge the well-established science that shows that vaccines are not linked to autism. fear about that point fueled by rfk jr. and others peddling m

misinformation is a leading reason that parents do not get their quits vacks -- their kids vaccinated against preventable, dangerous diseases. that is why elevating a man like rfk jr. to lead hhs would be so dang dangerous. just giving him any platform to spread vaccine doubt is dangerous, but to give him one of the biggest megaphones in the world? it is truly shameful we are debating this. my colleagues should know better. they actually do know better. they are looking the other way. they are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that rfk jr. won't use his new power to do exactly the thing he has basketball trying to do -- has been trying to do for decades, undermine vaccines. never mind the fact that cdc has already modified webpages with information about vaccines and

other vital public health information, which a federal judge has now ordered the trump administration to restore. never mind that the trump administration is also reportedly planning widespread and significant layoffs, layoffs at cdc and across hhs. this is how rfk jr. substitutes his own beliefs for science. so when the vaccine conspiracies start swirling, and rfk jr. turns hhs into ground zero for m misinformation, i had no idea is not going to be an excuse for confirming him, because at the help committee hearing the chair pressed him repeatedly about the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and when rfk jr. said he needed to see the evidence he was shown the evidence, but to no one's surprise he did not keep his word, admit he'd been wrong, and spread the good news that vaccines do not cause autism. he's had two weeks since that

hearing to look at the same settled science as everyone else. crickets. he won't hesitate to quote the latest anti-vax conspiracy. he's totally up to speed ton that front. are my colleagues really buying this guy will take an impartial look at the science? if you think rfk jr. will change who he is, you are lying to yourself. he has given no evidence to suggest that that and all the evidence in the world to the contrary. given his long and growing track record, we cannot just pretend if rfk jr. finally gets power to undermine vaccines, a cause he has dedicated a considerable amount of time and effort to, that he will just give up. that is not believable. i know i've been talking a lot about vaccines, because it is so obviously alarming. but the responsibility he would have goes far beyond that. so, let's break some of this

down. both the ways he could undermine vaccines as hhs secretary and the other responsibilities that would be at stake. to start with, the cdc is under hhs. that means that the secretary directly appoints people to cdc's vaccine advisory board. that board is responsible for making recommendations about vaccines, and it is those recommendations that determine whether or not certain vaccines have to be covered by insurance. so simply put, changing those recommendations would change what vaccines millions of americans, including kids, would be able to get from their health care provider. if he is confirmed there would be nothing stopping rfk jr. from firing the entire board and replacing them all with vaccine skeptics. after all, he has said many

times and in many ways he thinks cdc is corrupt and bought by pharma. as usual, by the way, without any evidence. rfk jr. would also oversee the food and drug administration. that is another agency he has repeatedly tried to discredit and attack, where he says he plans to fire, fire, hundreds of scientists on day one, and an agency that plays the crucial role of making sure our drugs and our treatments, including vaccines, are safe and effective when we purchase them. not only would mr. kennedy have a key perch from which he would undermine vaccines on a scale like never seen before, he could also use that platform to peddle quack treatments, no basis in science. rfk jr. would also have jurisdiction over nih. that alone means influence over billions of dollars in medical research, research that is

responsible for a significant portion of our economy. and more importantly, research that patients are desperately hoping will help them find cures. but rfk jr. could redirect those funds to promote his favorite pet conspiracies, instead of promising cures. or he could make good on his plan to fire hundreds of researchers and pause infectious disease research for eight years. it should go without saying wire united stateses aren't taking a break. the -- viruses aren't taking a break. the attacks on medical research are already happening under trump. from his day one executive orders, president trump has already been threatening medical research. suddenly, all of our grants are at risk because they're looking at addressing barriers to care, or understanding why black and na native american women have higher maternal death rates. now president trump is trying to

illegally, arbitrarily and suddenly change nih guidelines to set an unrealistic low cap on indirect cost rates. that will mean researchers laid off, studies canceled, including lifesaving clinical trials, and kids not able to get the treatment they need. all because president trump and elon musk don't seem to understand how we actually fund important research, and could not even be bothered to find out before taking an axe to our medical research labs, at a time when lifesaving research like this is already under attack from the president and the richest man in the world. no one who truly values medical research should vote to install one of the biggest attackers of medical science as the secretary of health and human services. mr. president, insurance is another huge portfolio for hhs.

last time trump was in office, we saw millions of people lose their health care coverage. the uninsured rate went up after years of hard-won progress, and we all know he still wants to rip up the affordable care act, which will drive up costs and kick people off their coverage. there's no reason to think mr. kennedy will stand up to that effort. there is no reason to think he has the experience and understanding of the system to actually do so. during his committee hearings, rfk jr. confused medicare and medicaid. this is bank stuff -- this is basic stuff. he failed to describe the components of medicare. yes, mr. president, i do absolutely have to talk about abortion care. this is of grave importance right now. in his hearings, not only did rfk jr. confess to having no real understanding of mtala, a law that requires patients have

access to lifesaving emergency care, including in some cases abortion care, he also showed that he will be totally open to republicans' fact-free efforts to rip away access to medication abortion. like so many other issues that rfk jr. is simply wrong about, the science on that has been settled for many years now. mr. kennedy made clear though he's very open to revisiting access to the abortion pill, based on a republican argument against the science that basically boils down to uh-uh. putting up barriers to the abortion pill or ripping it off the market completely, as republicans have made clear they want to do, would be absolutely devastating. let's not forget about pandemic threats. the lies rfk jr. spread during the last pandemic already make clear he is not the man to do this job. if that weren't enough, when there was a pandemic threat

response planning session for this new administration, he skipped it. he didn't go. it would be almost comical if this wasn't so serious. mr. president, everywhere you look, everything about this nominee, is so concerning. we cannot take this man at his word. something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and time again, but we can take him on his record, which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence. and by the way, note, he profited from that. and we can take the threat of what he might do seriously, especially given the alarming things that are already happening. if rfk jr. gives you his word of honor that he won't freeze research, guess what -- we're already seeing the trump administration totally upend medical research, thanks to the trump funding freeze, nih hasn't

issued any grants award in weeks. if rfk jr. swears he's not going to take down information about vaccines, he's not going to silence experts, well, don't look now, but the trump administration has already taken down or changed cdc pages about vaccines. they have already silenced public health experts. if rfk jr. pinkie promises you he won't undermine medical science or studies and won't ignore global health threats, you might want to sit down for this, but president trump has completely demolished our global health aid work. he has already completely demolished it. the fallout is utterly heart-wrenching. already we know of a woman who died because the usaid supported hospital she went to for oxygen was forced to discharge her because they got a stop-work order from the trump administration. it's not clear if she was the

first death caused by trump's complete freeze, but there is no question she will not be the last. mr. president, let me make a really important point here. it is not just people across the world who will be affected by this. there was a study being done on a new hiv treatment with thousands of volunteers, study being done already having a thousand volunteers doing the treatment. but now, without their regular injections, which are cut off by trump's move, there's going to be too little of the drug in their system to protect those people from hiv, but enough of the drug that if they contract hiv it could mutate to become drug resistant. so for all the absolutely unhinged conspiracies we've heard about medical research from rfk jr. and the like, where is the concern of this actual risk in this actual study

happening right now, all because president trump cut off foreign assistance? rfk jr. has been silent about that risk, silent about how wrong that is, and so even as he is making these empty promises on one hand to some of our colleagues, he's already standing by as president trump breaks them on the other hand. oh, here's one more -- if rfk jr. says he's going to consult you on health care personnel, please do not be fooled. look, i don't know why my colleagues need me to tell them this. i like to think we have some pretty smart people around here. but this vote, rfk jr.'s own nomination, this is your consultation on health care personnel, not some made-up promise for later. this is the point you have the most power. whatever he might say, you don't get to choose who rfk jr. will appoint to this or that.

heck, he doesn't get to choose who president trump appoints. the decision you get to make, all of us on this floor get to make, is the decision before us right now. you get to choose who you vote to confirm, and you will have to live with that decision. and if you ignore the warning signs and confirm rfk jr., then when the wheels fall off the wagon, you may try to tell yourself you were lied to, but you knew who you were dealing with. you knew who you were dealing with. you knew what he said before and what he has refused to say. you had all the knowledge you needed to do the right thing. i cannot tell my colleagues enough, this is not a game. this is not a political role without consequence. the health secretary has real power over whether americans can get basic information and care that impacts whether they live

or die. as i have tried to drive home throughout this process, vaccines save lives. that is not a question. it is not a slogan. it is a fact. if when parents look to you worried about their newborn, wanting to do what is best for their baby and trusting your advice as a public health leader, if you cannot tell them the same truth that centuries of science and experience tells us, which is that vaccines are safe and effective and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business leading the department of health and human services. none. and so just as i did at the hearing, i want to warn all of my colleagues, by merely voting to confirm mr. kennedy, we would be telling our constituents he's worth listening to on vaccines. that alone will get people killed before he even lifts a

finger, because he does not even need the leverage of power to get people killed. all he needs is that megaphone to affirm his views by voting to confirm him as our h highest health official, let's not mince words about what that will mean. when babies die from whooping cough because parents weren't sure if the vaccine was safe, will you be able to look them in the eye? when the flu sweeps our nursing homes, when measles sweeps through our communities, will it be worth it? mr. president, i will end on this, i'm sure there are plenty of members who know perfectly well just how dangerous it would be to confirm rfk jr. they don't need to hear it from me. in fact, some of them even know the danger better than i do. but here's what i do know, conscience is a muscle. courage is a muscle. the less you use them, the more they fade away. so if my colleagues are feeling the pressure from president trump or if they're feeling the

weight of the richest man in the world on their backs on this vote, i would warn them this will certainly not be the last test we face here in the senate. giving in to this pressure now won't make it go away. it won't soften the pressure you face later and will not strengthen your resolve when the stakes are higher. it will just show pressure works. if you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. you will be pushed further and further into accepting things you thought you never would, things you thought you never could. i think most of my colleagues know what really is at stake here. i think most of my colleagues know what sort of man rfk jr. is and what sort of damage he could do if confirmed. there are political realities, we all get that, but there is also right and wrong. there's fact and fiction. there's people staying healthy and people dying pointlessly,

kids dying pointlessly from diseases that we can prevent because they thought congress took his job vetting our health care secretary seriously. so, mr. president, i urge my colleagues to show some courage. i urge them to show some conscience. i urge them to vote no on rfk jr.'s nomination. mr. president, i yield 30 minutes of postcloture debate time to the democratic leader. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i find it so interesting how people are watching so closely to see what this administration does, and i've been so pleased to see that the polling shows by an overwhelming amount 70% of the american people agree with how president donald trump is carrying out his job. getting things done for the

american people, things that they voted to see done. and he is keeping those promises. now when we look at the issue of illegal immigration, we see that in his first weeks back in office, what he has done at the top of his to-do list has been to take action to secure this border. the numbers that we are seeing, how they have dropped with the number of encounters, with the number of got-aways, this is encouraging. the message is out there. the u.s. is going to protect and defend its sovereignty. we are going to protect and defend our people. that is important, and we are seeing it. now the president has taken some executive actions that have

yielded results. by executive order, he restored the remain in mexico policy. he restarted the border wall construction, which, by the way, mr. president, this is something the border patrol has told us not for just a few years, but for decades. we need a border wall. that's where the phrase build the wall came from. it came from people that are down there every day protecting this country from harm. the president has also ended cash and release. now that's that practice where somebody comes across and then they get their paper that they're claiming asylum, and they're told that they can go on into the country and go where, and there are nonprofits down there on the border, and they

give them a plane ticket and food and a phone, and off they go to their desired destination at taxpayer expense. so that has ended. the president has also sent troops to the southern border, and thank goodness, we are seeing these deportations of criminal illegal aliens taking place. yesterday in nashville, we had eight that were apprehended in a human trafficking ring. eight. two of them were linked to tr trandaugua. gang members. we have security moms all across this country, and certainly across tennessee that are reaching out to us and saying

keep it going. deport those that are criminally in this country. let's carry this out. we're seeing such good results. in operations across the country, i.c.e., which is immigration and customs enforcement, has arrested 11,000 criminal illegal aliens, including many violent offenders and gang members. since inauguration day, migrant encounters at the southern border have reportedly dropped 87%. as i said, mr. president, we are seeing results. we know that for years former president biden allowed more than 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country, including tens of thousands of convicted criminals and more than 1.7

million known got-aways. and for four years, tennesseans and americans across the country have suffered the tragic consequences, including rampant migrant crime. recently our tennessee district attorneys general conference released a report documenting the widespread migrant crime in our state during the final months of the biden administration. now, the report confirms what we already know, that during the biden years every town was a border town, every state was a border state. so our tennessee district attorneys general took the last three months of 2024, and they said let's look at what is happening in these last three

months and see how this has escalated. now of course we know that under joe biden, violent crime rose 43% his first year that he was in office. and what we saw from the district attorney general's report, that there were in three months -- now this is a three-month number -- there were 2,719 reports of illegal aliens being charged or convicted of 3,854 offenses in the state of tennessee. among them, the most common offense was driving under the influence. there were 654 arrests of those illegally in the country driving under the influence. these offenses accounted for more than 13% of all dui arrests

across the entire state. and this problem is a big reason why last year my republican colleagues and i introduced the protect our communities from dui's act. this bill would automatically deport any illegal alien who is charged with driving under the influence. mr. president, as i have gone across our state in each of our 95 counties, which i visit every year, into each of these counties i have heard from law enforcement, from police chiefs, from sheriffs that these dui's are such an incredible problem, and the number that are committed by those illegally in the country. now over this same three-month

period, illegal aliens committed hundreds of violent, heinous crimes. 154 instances of domestic assault, 80 of aggravated assault, 21, 21 convicted of child abuse, 9 of statutory rape, 8 of sexual exploitation of a minor, 7 of vehicular homicide, 4 of murder, 3 of rape of a child. and the list goes on and on. as i said, over 2,700 illegally in the country that were convicted of more than 3,800 crimes. disturbingly, these numbers are likely an undercount. only 73 of tennessee's 95 counties reported data to the district attorneys general

conference. under biden, national data showed that illegal aliens were pouring in from countries all over the world, and the tennessee migrant crime report also reflects this. there were 92 unique countries of origin from mexico and guatamala, jamaica, romania. here's the bottom line -- because of joe biden's open border policy that was supported by far too many of my democratic colleagues, thousands of crimes were committed by thousands of criminal illegal aliens in the state of tennessee over just a three-month span. and this, my colleagues, is just one state. this is my state. but we know this is happening in communities all across this country. more than anything, the report underscores the importance of

president trump's mass deportations which are under way. there are many ways that congress can support these efforts. my clear act, which i've talked about many times on the floor, would ensure state and local law enforcement officials have the tools to help the federal government deport criminal illegal aliens. this is crucial, especially when you've got far-left leaders like the chicago mayor refusing to turn over criminal illegal aliens to federal custody. now, general bondi is suing these sanctuary cities for allowing criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our great nation to harm americans. and thank goodness she is being tough on crime. i've also introduced the preventing violence against women by illegal aliens act which would allow the

deportation of illegal aliens convicted of sexual offenses or domestic violence. any illegal alien who commits these crimes should be removed from the country immediately and i urge all of my colleagues on each side of the aisle support this. and my container act would ensure that border states like texas have the legal authority to place temporary barriers on federal land to help stop the flow of traffickers, drugs, and criminals coming across the border. there are thousands of criminal illegal aliens residing in tennessee and across the country. we should be using every resource at our disposal to remove them. from our country. in many ways, the bills that i've mentioned would help president trump to get the job done. i yield the floor.

mr. schatz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: it is not often that the stakes of a vote to confirm a cabinet nominee are this hiechlt but tomorrow when we vote on the nomination of rfk jr. to be the secretary of the department of health and human services the stakes will be life and death. mr. kennedy, in his words, but more importantly in his actions, has proven over and over again that he is a unique danger to society, but he is on the edge of becoming the country's top health leader with the power to

unleash bygone diseases and undermine trust in science for generations to come. for the first time ever, we will have a health secretary who has actively helped to cause outbreaks instead of to contain them. we'll have someone in charge of medical research who's taken every opportunity to undermine science instead of promoting it. we'll have someone who's never come across a crazy idea that he didn't like, whether it's that antidepressants are the cause of mass shootings or chemicals in the water are turning children gay. this is the secretary of the health and human services department. those two things right there should be immediately disqualifying. this should be 100-0. this guy used to be a democrat.

this guy was pro-choice. this guy was for clean energy. this shouldn't be a partisan issue except to say, for hhs, you need somebody who has devoted their life -- and hopefully has some expertise in the area of public health. and it's not just that we didn't get somebody who has expertise in public health, we have someone who has caused disease and death. and i say those words with precision. i understand that both sides of the aisle are prone to exaggerating their case and being apocalyptic when we describe a pending vote. i've been here for a while, and everything is always the most important vote that we will ever cast. and i don't know if this is the most important vote we'll ever cast. i do think -- gosh, i hope i'm

wrong, i really do hope i'm wrong. but i do think this is likely the cabinet secretary vote that is likely to age the most poorly because this person has the potential to actually cause diseases like rubella, like mumps, like measles, like polio that have been gone for many generations. because we have a vaccine regime. and i want to tell you what he did in samoa. in 2019 he flew to samoa to discourage people from taking the measles vaccine. and the reason was that he wanted to run a, quote, natural experiment to see how people would fare against the disease without protections. now, some of you may know this. my father was the first whistleblower against the tuskegee experiments in which the united states public health

service did a similar thing. they knew that penicillin cured syphilis, and they knew that for the most part untreated syphilis caused death, but the u.s. public health service decided to divide a cohort of african american men into two parts. one would receive the medicine and be safe and be cured, and another cohort would receive a placebo and not get the lifesaving cure for syphilis. and why did they do that? to, quote, observe the disease process. to observe the disease process. so when you investigate whether or not a medicine works, there is hale a whole process to -- there's a whole process to it. you have the fda, double-blind studies. but you're trying to get 10 some level of reliable significance so that you can project out into

the population what's going to work and what's not. the sick in the head way to do this is to say you can't achieve statistical significance until you just let a bunch of people get sick and figure out what happens. the united states congress, led by someone with whom i served for a couple years, tom harkin, when they found out about the tuskegee experiments made in law against the u.s. public health service every doing that again because it is immoral. it is bad science, sure. but more than that, it treated these african american men as if they were worth experimenting on, as if this category of human beings in the united states were expendable for scientific research purposes, and that's exactly what happened in samoa. that is exactly what happened in samoa. 6,000 people got the measles, 83 people died, 79 of them were kids.

it is so chilling to contemplate the idea that someone as recognizable as a kennedy would fly across an ocean to a small developing country and basically tell everybody, be afraid of this lifesaving medicine. and it's not like he did that once and said, i'm sorry. i misunderstood or i'm being misunderstood. this dude actually sells onesies on his web side saying, i think it's, like, unvaccined and unafraid -- un-vaxxed and unafraid. i do understand the pressure that some of my colleagues are facing. they're being told, if you vote against one trump nominee, you'll be primaried. so that's not a small amount of

pressure. but this one, i just promise you, it's not going to age well. some of my colleagues are expressing reservations in private. and i think that's better than not expressing any reservations at all the. and some of them are getting private assurances from mr. kennedy that he does not in fact hate all vaccines. he just wants to answer questions and all the rest of it. i am not reassured. i think this person has demonstrated over a pretty long career that he says whatever is convenient in the moment, right? this is like a, i'm reconstructed. he is a kennedy. he was running for president in the democratic primary, and now he is a trump guy, like 10 months later. what does that mean? it means he's got no core

values, right? there's just no way to go from over here to over here politically in such a short period of time except that he was offered something. he was offered this job. why was he offered this job in he's got a very specific view about public health. and i just want to make one other point. the problem of our food system, right -- the problem of the extent to which we subsidize ultra processed foods that are coming from commodities that are subsidized in the farm bill and causing people to get increasingly diabetic and all the related health problems that happen related to that, like that's a really legitimate place to do some good bipartisan work. and i would love to do that. also, it's not what the hhs secretary does.

it's what the department of agriculture secretary does. the problem is, you get what you subsidize. and we are subsidizing all the corn products and all the soy products and all the sugar products that go into the lab-tested, extra-delicious, extra-bad for you, extra-addictive stuff that is making us all, even though we're the wealthiest country in human history, a very unhealthy country. and so if that's all this guy were working on, you could count me in. but if wu'er idea of public -- but if your idea of public health has to do with health and food, has to do with prevention, has to do with understanding our food system and our agricultural system and our usda and our farm process is actually broken, you don't have to purchase this kind of crazy, evil stuff. you just don't. you don't have to do t there's

lots of good people on the food system side you can work with, work for, cheer on, organize with. but this man is going around -- he's not talking about the covid vaccine. he's not talking about whether or not it's appropriate to require masks in public, where democrats and republicans are, like, still arguing about stuff like that. he's talking about stuff that, like, if you're a parent and now you don't know whether when your kid goes to school they've reached herd immunity for stuff that is like, way, way, way, generations back in the rearview mirror, and so i don't know if this is going to mark one of the most important public health moments in american history, but i can't think of another time where we actually have the technology, we have the medicine, we have the science, we have the distribution system,

we have the public infrastructure to keep people safe, and we just decide by a vote of 53-47 to make people unsafe. so, secretary of defense, dni -- all these are important -- treasury, every cabinet position is important. it's going to be a little more challenging to know whether your vote is vindicated in the sweep of history. i think this guy is going to age very poorly in the job because i think we are going to see bad public health outcomes very, very shortly. this really is a matter of life and death. and i understand -- what i have learned over the last ten days is, if republicans are going to display courage, it's not going to be on the cabinet. there are a few that have voted, you know, not with their party.

but for the most part, like, they're in line and trump is going to get his cabinet. but let this be a marker for everybody. let today with a marker for everybody. if you -- even if you voted for trump, if you didn't vote for trump, if you're not a voter, it doesn't matter. if you think it is a good idea to leave all of these diseases in the rearview mirror, then this is a very, very bad person to have running the department of health and human services. i yield the floor. a senator: thank you, mr. president. two weeks ago i had the opportunity -- the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. alsobrooks: two 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 three years ago, kennedy said -- and i quote -- we should not be giving black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to whiteses 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 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.

and 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 did i 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 disagree with your assertions.

dr. kennedy said that your assertion would be twisting the data. dr. poland who you mentioned name during the hearing is doing research supportive of your claim, told npr that his team found no evidence of increased vaccine side effects and th clear that the data doesn't support this. any claim of increased vulnerability is quote not supported by either this study or the science. npr quoted dr. carlos del rio of emory university as saying your conclusion was, quote, taking it to a very unsafe place because black children already have lower vaccination rate than their pierce, and that -- peers, and that is why i said your claims are dangerous. i have to ask you mr. kennedy, should black and white people have different vaccination

schedules. you would think the man who wants to serve on health and human services and tasked with improving the health, safety and well-being of america will provide a thoughtful and nuanced response. it was anything but. because let's be clear, mr. kennedy is not a doctor, he is a not a scientist. his only connection to the world of health and science is questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccines. maybe i shouldn't have been surprised by his curt 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

laidened with conspiracy theories. i quote him when he said there is no vaccine safe and effective. i quote, none of the vaccines have been studied. they get the shot, they have a fever of 103, they go to sleep and three months later their brain is gone. this is a holocaust what this country is doing. i quote, autism comes from vaccines. the vaccine given to his gene generation cause -- the covid vaccine and he said, quote, the deadliest ever made. the also said, i quote, covid-19 is targeted to attack caucasians and black people, the people who are most immune are jews and

chinese. he said there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective. all statements made by a man who is asking to be held responsible for a singular mission. the mission of the united states 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 medicines public health and social services. it is task of epic responsibility and serious job when done well could save hundreds of thousands of lives. a job that when done poorly will most certainly cost american lives. and 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 world view. 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. making my consideration before a jury of my peers, grinding my arguments -- grounding my arguments were a basic set of evidentiary facts, but what we're dealing with here isn't a debate, it's 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 -- is that we have the duty to advise and consent and it isn't just a privilege of this chamber, it's a responsibility to speak for the people of our state 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-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 assess yt is -- 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, 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 a consistent -- 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'm proud to say has its home in maryland. the mission of the national institutes of health is to seek fundamental knowledge to enhance life and reduce disability. it falls under the agency mr. kennedy is seeking to run. here are what some scientists, who i asked mr. kennedy to listen to, despite his distaste for the profession had to say, dr. richard hoovener, director

of neuroscience at john hopkins said, and i quote, we're all dumb struck, i'm calling it the apocalypse of american science, it will change science as we know it in the united states. the bottom line is we are going to have a lot less resources which obviously means we're going to have to lay people off and research will be slowed down. dr. otis brawdy who is from the bloomberg -- woe will see research kneecaped. he has overseen grants at the national cancer institute, part of nih and he went on to say, and i quote, people who are getting created in clinical

trials for cancer will find many of those trials closed down. the president of the association of american medical colleges said, and i quote, these are real consequences. longer waits for cures and diagnosis, cloture 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 leftkowich, professor of medicine who won the nobel peace prize in chemistry in 2012 said, and i quote, i think the american people need to understand how devastating this would be if this goes through. a lot of research would have to stap. i can't -- stop. i cannot imagine this will be met from other sources. nih has over 600 ongoing clinton

trials. the nih supports hundreds more clinton trials. 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 supporting over 23,000 jobs and $5.7 billion in economic activity in maryland many these massive cuts will lead to over $200 million in losses to hopkins and never $50 million of 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 its crosshairs, the press is

targeting some of the most vulnerable americans, the young child suffering from sickle cell disease, the working mom who is struggling to care for a parent with alzheimer's, the family member suffering from an opioid addiction, all diseases being actively researched by the nih. disease and suffering does not respect the boundering of partisan politics. it impacts each and every american family and 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 cloture to conspiracies. and 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 considering per capita caps and repealing medicaid funding. let me make this simple. the republican framework to cut medicaid puts 435,000 marylanders at risk of losing coverage. it will lead to major caps in health care coverage and undermined family security. it will put quality care out of reach for more families. and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, these are democratic families, these are republican families, that shouldn't matter to the president or 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

coverage in states for eligibility and reimbursement rates. my states can't afford these cuts, maryland's families can't afford these cuts. 9 of 6% of eligible children in maryland are supported by medicaid or chip and it would cut those with the lowest incomes and highest health care needs. at a time when americans are struggling under the wait of inflation, we cannot strip away or cut their health coverage. that's a cruel move that will bankrupt many individuals and families. many americans are one catastrophe away from financial ruin. and if you take away tcoverage affordable care, it will be rea realized. don't just take it from me. marylanders have been calling and writing in demanding that we do everything we can can to fight against attacks of

medicaid. jacqueline from baltimore shared this, one day i was work and fell in the bathroom, had to be cut out of the rest room, it was determined i was diabetic. having medicaid saved of my life. if i did not have medicaid or any insurance, i would have been sent home and no 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 disability administration monday through fridays, 9:00 to 3:00. 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 have become homeless, another impact of medicaid cuts could be his health care 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 the 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 health care 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 will be a voice that parents would listen to. i honored my constitutional duty of advice and consent. on behalf of every single marylander who's 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. and 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 he 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 it 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. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i come to the floor to join my colleagues with a great deal of concern to discuss the trump administration's nomination of robert f. kennedy jr. to be the next secretary of the department of health and human services. to put it very simply at the outset, robert f. kennedy, rfk jr. is unfit to lead the highest health office in our nation. first of all, rfk has no -- let me repeat -- no health or

medical experience. that in and of itself should be a red flag on this nominee who is supposed to be tasked with leading our nation's health agency. but sadly that's not where the red flags end. from his radical and dangerous opinions on vaccines and other public health to his promises to cut medical research to his ever changing position on women's rights to access reproductive health care, he has proven that he lacks the credibility, the knowledge, and the capability to be the secretary of health and human services. so let's take a step back. when president trump ran his campaign, he ran a campaign on lowering costs for working americans. well, where has that promise gone. we saw today that inflation has gone up in the last quarter. it's over 3% now. and we've seen nothing from

president trump's first weeks in office that addresses the high cost of health care, of food, of housing, of child care. two weeks ago this administration including the health and human services agency, halted funding across the board for programs like our community health centers and substance use treatment programs. these centers are often the main source of health care for their communities. they serve the people across the states of this country. in our office i heard from programs like cross county family health, a community health center that provides lifesaving care to rural patients across the northern part of new hampshire, what we call the north country. their programs for training new doctors and providing services for victims of domestic violence were and still are at risk

thanks to trump's executive orders and funding freeze. and i heard from navigating recovery in laconia. that's a substance use treatment service that depends on federal funding for more than 50% of its budget. they're worried about keeping their doors open. and this is an organization with providers who will literally sit with a patient by their hospital bed following an overdose to make sure they're getting the best guidance, the best treatment, and the follow-on services like housing and child care that allows them to start their recovery. and this is a real issue for us in new hampshire where we've been hit very hard by the opioid epidemic. the trump executive orders and funding cuts will force navigating recovery, to lay off staff and to curtail services should those funding cuts continue. these are actions on the part of

the white house that don't lower costs for families. they do just the opposite. they put people out of work and they weaken our ability to care for our most vulnerable populations. but when he was asked if he would reverse this policy of cutting funding for programs like substance use recovery, rfk ref refused. the thing is we should be taking steps right now to lower costs for families and children. half of the uninsured -- cite costs for their reason for not being able to purchase health insurance. more than two-thirds of people in new hampshire have delayed care and another 25% have delayed buying needed prescriptions or said they have to rational their meds. we could help these people right now. we could pass the health care affordability act which would

make permanent premium tax credits in the affordable care act that have cut health care costs for 24 million americans, nearly 70,000 from new hampshire. passing that bill would directly help constituents like the man in new market who contacted our office. he's 55 years old. he's a patient at lamprey health care which is a community health center. he'd been uninsured and avoided going to a doctor his whole life. but sadly he was recently hospitalized for ten days because of complications from untreated diabetes. he had sepsis and he had an infection in his foot. unfortunately, he didn't have insurance when he was hospitalized. but luckily lamprey health care sat with him, helped him purchase insurance on healthcare.gov, helped him avoid potentially devastating medical

debt. these tax credits are vital to his and to millions of americans' ability to afford health care. but again, when asked about these tax credits, rfk refused to say that he would support extending them. so much for any concern about lowering costs for families. now, if this administration is not trying to lower costs, what are they doing to help the people they swore an oath to serve? last friday our research institutions got a notification almost overnight that their funding through the national institutes of health would be gutted. this decision threatens our ability to find cures for diseases, to get ahead of public health crises, and to hire and retain talent. i think it was made rationally

and irresponsibly without really understanding what the impact would be. lashing those funds won't make research more efficient. instead it's going to cripple our ability to treat and cure horrific diseases. dartmouth college which is in hanover, new hampshire, is one of our preeminent institutions in the country. last year dartmouth received nearly $100 million in nih funding to help with its cutting edge research to treat diseases like diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and alzheimer's. this nih decision, this decision by the trump administration will cut dartmouth's funding by $38 million. and we don't know what the future impact of that would be. will we miss the next cure for a pediatric cancer? will we fail to advance treatments in alzheimer's.

what we do know is this has an immediate impact of the people living in the upper valley of new hampshire. more than 1300 employees are supported by federal grants at dartmouth. and the vast majority of these are supported by the national institutes of health. the job loss, the economic impact that will result from this decision will be devastating. and sadly, once these jobs are gone and the researchers leave, there's no going back because they're going some place else. they're going overseas. but we unfortunately know that rfk supports this decision because he has publicly supported gutting nih staff and research. and if robert kennedy is confirmed, i fear he will do nothing to push back or to reverse these reckless decisions. the secretary of hhs also holds immense power over ensuring that

women in our country have the ability to access reproductive health services, including abortion. interestingly, i thought this was something that rfk and i agreed on. but now i'm not clear what he supports. he used to proudly say that he was pro-choice. but since being nominated, that belief seems to have disappeared overnight. the only thing i think he truly believes is in his desire to do whatever trump wants, even if it means compromising his own values. women in this country need to know that the secretary of health and um -- and human services will defend our rights to access all the health care we need. but at every turn, republicans and the trump administration have pushed forward dangerous policies intended to threaten access to full reproductive care.

they put on the supreme court the justices who overturned roe v. wade. and at the state level, they have instituted draconian abortion bans that threaten the lives of mothers. women are literally dying, dying from a lack of care because of these bans on our health. this is 2025. how did we get here some i remember before roe v. wade. i remember when hundreds of thousands of women died from back alley abortions. and are we back to that point? everyone knows that banning abortion and making women seek dangerous options does not stop abortions. it makes them more deadly. but with rfk at the helm, that's the grim reality we face. he's not someone i trust to defend a woman's right to access reproductive health care. he is not someone i