[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 153 (Thursday, September 18, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6708-S6709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Paul Harvey was a radio commentator. He 
used to say ``And now for the rest of the story.''
  I would like to respond to my friend from Wyoming's comments he just 
made on the floor of the Senate. One of the proposals Democrats stand 
by is to reestablish the tax credit for Americans who are buying their 
health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It could be up to 15 
million Americans stand to lose their health insurance coverage because 
of changes in the law on the big beautiful Trump budget bill. Among 
those who stand to feel hardship, at least, or maybe lose their 
insurance, are some 60,000 residents of the State of Wyoming.
  Last night, Senators came to the floor to discuss this issue of the 
cost of health insurance, which is going to go up dramatically for many 
Americans as of the 1st of October. The example was given by Senator 
Welch of Vermont of an individual making $80,000 a year in the State of 
Wyoming, which he would see his ACA health insurance premiums go up 
$3,000, $3,000 a month--$3,000. I doubt that many of us could put that 
sum on the table without some sacrifice. Many people would end up 
giving up their health insurance entirely.
  This was referred to as a liberal radical idea to protect that tax 
credit which was taken away by the Republicans in their big beautiful 
Trump budget bill. I don't think it is radical. If you have ever lived 
without health insurance and had a sick child in your family, you will 
never forget it. I have been through that experience. So this notion 
that this is a radical idea is wrong.
  The Senator from Wyoming goes on to say that we are cutting out $50 
billion in a special program for hospitals across America. What he 
doesn't tell you is that that $50 billion was a small lifesaver put in 
the Big Beautiful Bill because the Republicans voted to eliminate $1 
trillion in Medicaid spending, an essential program for small town and 
rural hospitals. So we restore--in addition to the ACA tax credit, we 
restored the $1 trillion which was in the Medicaid Program, which will 
spare many of these hospitals from closing.
  So when you look at the specifics of the situation when it comes to 
healthcare, this really makes a difference. I also want to tell you 
that the policy, healthcare policy that we currently see with this 
administration is frightening. Let me tell you a story.
  When I was growing up as a little boy in East St. Louis, IL, we were 
afraid of polio. One of our classmates would go to school healthy in 
the morning and would be paralyzed before dinner. When I was in the 
first grade, my friend disappeared for weeks. When I asked where she 
went, they just shook their heads and said ``Polio.'' When she finally 
returned, she couldn't walk without leg braces. I will never forget the 
agony I saw on her face.
  For decades, polio ravaged America, killing and paralyzing thousands 
of people a year and then--and then--a vaccine was discovered. The Salk 
vaccine was a miracle. By 1979, polio was eradicated in the United 
States. A disease that struck fear in the heart of everyone soon 
became--thank God--a distant memory. We repeated that success early 
this century with diseases like measles and rubella.
  Unfortunately, those vaccine victories are now under attack by the 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. His actions 
threaten to reverse 50 years of progress in infectious disease 
treatment and prevention.
  Let me tell you about the chaos that has occurred at the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention since Secretary Kennedy was confirmed.
  In February, Secretary Kennedy moved to fire--dismiss--more than 
1,000 CDC staff members. That is 10 percent of the workforce. This 
included key members of the Agency's pandemic prevention and laboratory 
safety staff.

[[Page S6709]]

In August, he fired Dr. Susan Monarez from her position as Director of 
the CDC, despite the fact that she had been nominated by President 
Trump and confirmed by every Senate Republican just weeks before. 
Yesterday Dr. Monarez testified before the Senate HELP Committee about 
the circumstances surrounding her firing, and the revelations in her 
testimony were deeply, deeply troubling.
  Dr. Monarez told the committee that Secretary Kennedy plans to upend 
our Nation's vaccine recommendation schedules this month. You see, the 
CDC's vaccine advisory committee meets regularly to make 
recommendations based on science on what vaccines Americans should 
receive at various points in their life.
  States use these recommendations, professional medical 
recommendations, to develop guidelines for what vaccines our children 
should receive. Health insurance companies are required to cover the 
full cost of the recommended vaccines from this panel. Unfortunately, 
Secretary Kennedy unilaterally fired all of the members of the CDC 
Vaccine Advisory Committee, many of whom were infectious disease and 
vaccine experts. He fired them all. He replaced them with people who 
have espoused anti-vaccine views and aligned with extreme health-
related conspiracy theories.
  This new panel is set to meet today, and I fear they are about to 
upend decades of progress in preventing unnecessary illness by wiping 
out recommendations and access to childhood vaccines.
  Dr. Monarez testified yesterday that she was fired from not 
preemptively agreeing to rubberstamp these new vaccine formulas absent 
scientific evidence that changes would warrant.
  Think about that. Secretary Kennedy fired President Trump's pick to 
head the CDC because she insisted that the Agency's vaccine 
recommendations be actually backed by science.
  Many States who see this anti-vaccine movement at the highest levels 
of our government are taking things to an even further extreme. Florida 
announced it would end most of its vaccine requirements, and other 
Republican States are likely to follow suit. The rising vaccine 
skepticism promoted by Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration 
will cause a resurgence in preventable disease across America.
  In Texas, two unvaccinated children died from measles earlier this 
year, the first such deaths in America in 10 years. Louisiana is 
experiencing its worse whooping cough outbreak in 35 years. More than 
30 infants have been hospitalized, and many were not vaccinated with 
the DTaP vaccine that could have protected them. Tragically, two of 
these infants have already died.
  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will be the first Secretary of HHS with a 
body count. He is a danger to the children of America. Kennedy's 
onslaught has targeted more than just vaccines; he and President Trump 
have spearheaded a historic level of dysfunction at the National 
Institutes of Health. They have frozen medical research funding and 
fired scientists and researchers. Think about that. This is going to 
make America great again--firing medical researchers?

  I have been a supporter of the NIH in all the time I have served in 
Congress. The research gives people hope when they are faced with 
devastating diagnoses.
  For 10 years, I have been part of a bipartisan task force to raise 
the NIH research budget. In those 10 years, we increased the budget by 
more than 60 percent, raising it from $30 billion to $48 billion today. 
But Trump and Kennedy's proposed budgets for next year eliminates this 
$18 billion increase in medical research. Every penny of the increase I 
fought for for the last 10 years is gone with this Trump budget. It 
will mean fewer novel cures and treatments for patients who need them. 
It will dramatically reduce research into Alzheimer's, cardiovascular 
disease, and diabetes. They have been suspended because of the Trump-
Kennedy cuts.
  Does anybody believe that America is greater as a nation with less 
cancer research? I don't. Patients desperate for cures for horrible 
conditions like glioblastoma are in agony today because President Trump 
and Secretary Kennedy canceled the research funding they depend on.
  Secretary Kennedy's cuts will stifle a generation of researchers and 
jeopardize our medical research infrastructure. We will feel the 
effects of this rash decision for decades to come.
  I call on my Republican colleagues to stand up to this public health 
massacre. Some of the Members are doctors or parents themselves who 
have vaccinated their kids or spent their careers trying to improve our 
healthcare system.
  My colleagues know that Secretary Kennedy is unqualified, unhinged, 
and dangerous, and I hope they will find the courage to join me and 
speak out against the terrible decisions he has fostered. If they 
don't, I fear there will be dire consequences if we allow Secretary 
Kennedy to continue to serve in a role where lives are on the line, and 
he is clearly unqualified.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from Nebraska.