[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S955-S956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.
Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, it is truly astounding that the Senate
stands on the brink of confirming Mr. Kennedy to lead America's public
health Agencies.
If the Senate weren't gripped in this soon to be infamous period of
total capitulation, I don't think this nominee would have made it as
far as a hearing. If I told you a couple of years ago: There is a guy
who has been nominated to run public health nationwide. His job will be
to protect American families from death and disease. He is going to run
the whole public health system--Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the NIH,
all of it. He will decide how we protect the country from infectious
disease. He will set the rules for every hospital in the country. He
will decide what healthcare and medicines get covered by Medicare. He
will manage our response in the event of a pandemic.
And then I told you: Well, there are a few concerns about this
nominee. First of all, zero relevant experience. He is a trial lawyer,
a politician from a famous family, no medical or scientific background.
He has never run a hospital or a health system or anything like that.
Second of all, he has said some pretty wild stuff about public health
over and over and over again, like, he proposed that COVID-19 might be
``ethnically targeted'' to spare Jews--``ethnically targeted'' to spare
Jews. He said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon.
For years, he has been persuading American families against routine
childhood immunizations. He has compared the work of the CDC to ``Nazi
death camps.''
If a couple of years ago I told you all of that and I told you the
Senate was about to put America's health in this man's hands, you would
probably tell me the Senate has lost its mind.
By the way, it is OK to challenge scientific consensus, and it is not
just OK, it is necessary to question the way we manage our healthcare
system and our food system. They are not working. But that is not the
issue here. The issue for the Senate is, are we going to put in charge
of American public health a man with no relevant credentials, who for
decades seems to have latched on to just about every piece of half-
baked conspiracist pseudoscience he has come across?
I mentioned earlier that Mr. Kennedy compared the CDC's work to
``Nazi death camps.'' These aren't comments I take lightly given my
ancestors were exterminated in Nazi death camps and the folks who work
at the CDC are my constituents.
And Mr. Kennedy, if confirmed, will take charge of HHS and,
therefore, the CDC, at a moment when an onslaught of political attacks
by the new administration have thrown the CDC into chaos. Huge amounts
of CDC data and reporting were simply disappeared from the internet--
cancer data, maternal mortality data.
There has been an unprecedented interruption of the ``Mortality and
Morbidity Report.'' That is data that has been consistently reported
since the 1930s.
Public reporting about bird flu has been interrupted, while it rips
through chicken flocks and has been documented jumping to humans.
The administration tried to freeze funding for the CDC's flagship
infectious disease monitoring program, the one that detects outbreaks
before they are out of control, and that effort was stopped only by a
court order.
And we are hearing threats to gut the CDCs workforce, at a time when
the country needs the CDC firing on all cylinders to prevent deadly
outbreaks of infectious disease.
If this administration guts and gags the CDC, who is going to defend
the Nation from Ebola. Who is going to protect kids from measles? Who
is going to save us from TB?
And then there is this crusade against health equity--``equity,'' an
unspeakable word now under our new official MAGA state ideology. Health
equity--that means trying to address the huge race and class
disparities in health outcomes that plague our country. For example, it
means making sure clinical trials include minority groups so we get
good data on how to save all lives, not just some lives. It means
figuring out how to get women in remote, rural communities prenatal
checkups. It means addressing the fact that maternal mortality for
Black women in Georgia is three times higher than for White women.
Trying to make healthcare in America equitable--``equitable,''
meaning dealing fairly with all concerned, no matter how much money you
have or
[[Page S956]]
the color of your skin or where you are from--that is important work.
The quality of your healthcare shouldn't depend on how you look or how
rich you are or where you grew up. And yet this obvious point and the
work to address it is suddenly now not just politically incorrect; it
is politically forbidden. And the people who do this work are being
forced onto administrative leave. They are being shunned, and they are
being publicly threatened.
Mr. President, here are excerpts from a letter I received today from
a constituent.
Good afternoon, Senator Ossoff. I write to you today with a
heavy heart and a profound sense of concern.
After decades of dedicated service to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention--working under both Republican
and Democratic administrations to improve vaccine uptake,
advance health equity, and fight the disparities that have
long plagued underserved communities--I now find myself
facing an alarming and deeply troubling situation.
My constituent continues:
This morning, I was placed on the DEI watch list web site
and publicly identified as a target. Compounding this
distressing reality, my personal and internal CDC-related
information has been exposed on a public web site, placing me
in immediate danger. I have since received unexpected
deliveries to my home, and my personal information is now in
the hands of individuals aligned with the views of the
current administration--individuals whose intentions I cannot
discern but whose actions are already proving to be invasive
and threatening.
The letter goes on.
I am left with no choice but to remain vigilant, prayerful,
and confined to my own home--effectively a prisoner for doing
my duty as a public health professional. The fear and
uncertainty that have overtaken my daily life are not just a
personal burden but a dire warning about the dangers faced by
those who commit themselves to the work of health equity and
public service. Even more distressing is the silence and
inaction of those who should be stepping in to address this
injustice.
That is a letter I received today from a constituent who has served
at the CDC for decades and who has now been doxed and publicly targeted
and fears for her safety, apparently because working to reduce health
disparities for communities and people who have lousy access to
healthcare and poor health outcomes makes you a political target.
And this constituent isn't alone. There are dozens more CDC workers
in Georgia who have faithfully served our country for years and who
face the very same harassment and the same threats.
This is ugly and menacing stuff, and the license for it comes
directly from the President of the United States.
Tomorrow morning, unless Senate Republicans can summon a shred of
courage, the Senate may be poised to confirm someone to lead America's
public health system who is obviously unqualified and unfit.
As we speak, the world's flagship disease control Agency is in chaos
and under political attack, and public servants who dare to try to
improve health outcomes for the poor and disadvantaged fear for their
safety--all brought to you by the President who said: Maybe bleach
injections could cure COVID.
None of this bodes well for the health and safety of the American
people. I will oppose the Kennedy nomination. It is not too late for my
colleagues gripped by political fear to do the same.
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