[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 15 (Friday, January 24, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S362-S363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Unanimous Consent Request

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, anyone who has tried to buy a carton of 
eggs at the grocery store lately has probably seen a sign on the empty 
shelves saying there is a national shortage of eggs because of the bird 
flu.
  The reason notices like this exist is because the Department of 
Health and Human Services tracks disease outbreaks around the clock and 
notifies the public in real time. And, of course, we take that for 
granted. We should take that for granted. It is the kind of thing that 
the government just does and that we normally don't argue about.
  There are a lot of things for us to argue about, but whether or not 
the government should tell us if there is a public health problem has 
never been something that we have argued about. We take it for granted, 
but it is an invaluable service that keeps the public safe and healthy, 
which is why it was so bizarre that in one of his first acts as 
President, Donald Trump suspended all--all--communications from HHS--
health advisories, scientific reports, updates on the website, all of 
it.
  What is that supposed to do other than keep people from getting the 
information that they need to keep their families healthy? This is 
about being able to know if a certain kind of meat or vegetable has 
been contaminated and staying away from it.
  For instance, when there was an E. coli outbreak at McDonald's last 
year, the FDA immediately sent out an alert, which the press picked up 
on and warned the public about. Those communications are paused. 
Cucumbers at Costco is another example. E. coli at McDonald's--I don't 
mean to pick on these particular companies; lots of retail operations 
have their various public health problems.
  I understand elections have consequences, right? And it is within the 
scope of a new administration that is reasonable for them to kind a 
take a look at all public policy and implement their own public policy. 
But, look, this is a little nuts.
  I am assuming that there was a person in the White House or in the 
transition team writing up a bunch of Executive orders and thinking 
through an ideological lens or even an electoral lens. Fair enough. And 
they wanted to have a bunch of Executive orders ready to roll. So day 
one--boom, nothing coming out of HHS.
  But the problem is, this isn't partisan; this isn't what people 
thought they were voting for; and this really could jeopardize the 
public health. So the resolution I am introducing and asking for 
unanimous consent on is very simple. It reaffirms the very basic belief 
that people deserve to have timely and accurate information relevant to 
their health and well-being.
  We are not arguing about like a COVID response. We just want to know 
if there is a problem in what you are about to eat. And suspending 
those communications has nothing to do with party. It has to do with 
keeping everybody safe. So if there is a problem during this pause, the 
Department of Health and Human Services will not communicate to the 
public about it.
  As if in legislative session, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of my 
resolution at the desk; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered 
made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Reserving the right to object, I think all of 
us can agree with my colleague. We can agree it is very important the 
American people have readily available access to accurate and timely 
public health information. I don't think anyone disputes that, and no 
one should have to doubt the important work done by the Department of 
Health and Human Services to provide the American people with the 
information they need to remain healthy and safe.
  But this resolution is unnecessary. The new administration just took 
office and issued a temporary pause until February 1 on all 
communications coming from its Agencies without approval. They have 
every right to do this.
  To be frank, they have a lot of problems to solve from the prior 
administration.
  I hope we can focus on confirming nominees quickly. The sooner his 
team gets in place, the sooner he can deliver on his promises to the 
American people. Therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.


                  Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, a new story was published today about the 
extent of Mr. Robert F. Kennedy's involvement in the 2019 measles 
outbreak in Samoa, and it shot a chill down my spine. That is not a 
rhetorical flourish. I read it and I felt hot, I felt angry, I felt 
worried.
  We already know that he flew halfway across the world to Samoa to 
spread lies about the measles vaccine and discourage people from taking 
it. We already know that as a result, there was a measles outbreak. 
Five thousand people got measles; 83 people died; 79 of them were 
children.
  But I think there is a new fact here that is worth lingering on. He 
saw it as a great research opportunity--he saw it as a great research 
opportunity. He literally took an informatics expert--somebody who 
studies how people receive information--with him to Samoa to run a 
``natural experiment'' studying what would happen to kids if they 
weren't vaccinated.
  Let me tell you why this is personal to me. My dad is my hero. May 
his memory be a blessing. He is my hero for a number of reasons; but 
among them, he was a young doctor, and he was reading the New England 
Journal of Medicine. He was right out of medical school, and he read 
about something called the Tuskegee experiments.
  What happened in the Tuskegee experiments is the United States Public 
Health Service withheld lifesaving medication from African-American men 
to ``observe the disease process.'' They considered these men 
expendable. They provided half of the cohort with penicillin, which 
they knew would cure syphilis, and half of the men with a placebo 
without telling them to, again, observe the disease process.
  And so my dad went on the record and Congress actually intervened 
many years later with Tom Harkin, and on a bipartisan basis, making it 
explicit that the U.S. Public Health Service has to observe the 
Hippocratic Oath: ``Do no harm.''
  Do no harm.
  And it is a dark history for America but a proud moment as I think of 
my father and his legacy.
  But the one thing I never thought would ever occur is that more than 
50 years later, we would be at the precipice of confirming a person to 
run the Department of Health and Human Services who, in this era--50 
years after the Tuskegee experiments--flew to Samoa, encouraged people 
not to take the measles vaccine, watched 5,000 people get sick, watched 
83 people die, watched 79 kids die and said: This is a real opportunity 
for data collection so we can see how this plays out.
  I am still a little shocked that this person isn't going to be 
rejected 100 to 0. I understand partisanship. I understand loyalty. I 
am not immune to partisan pressures on my own side. But this guy is 
different. This guy is about to run the Department of Health and Human 
Services and he doesn't have just, like, one weird idea about one 
certain aspect of public health. He is a person who has flown across 
the planet to cause outbreaks of diseases that are generations in our 
past.
  And to add insult to injury, he is repeating the moral mistakes of 
the Tuskegee experiment that has been actually outlawed by the United 
States Congress.
  I will be talking about this more, but I am just hoping that--we 
fight about a lot of stuff in this building, but I know there are a lot 
of people on both sides of the aisle that take their obligations 
seriously to provide advice and consent to the President of the United 
States, whether you voted for him or not,

[[Page S363]]

whether your State voted for him or not.
  This is an opportunity to say we are a separate and coequal branch of 
government and if you are a Republican, say: Listen, I support this 
President, but I don't support this nominee because I don't want 
measles or mumps or rubella or polio to make a comeback.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.