00:00And thank you for holding what is a very critically important hearing on President Trump's
00:05disastrous budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary Kennedy,
00:11good morning to you. We welcome you to the House Appropriations Committee for your first budget
00:16hearing. However, I cannot thank you for the Trump administration's budget request to cut funding
00:22for important health programs by $33 billion. Quite frankly, I view it as a disgrace. Under your
00:31budget proposal, Americans would die of needless and preventable deaths. But before we talk about
00:36the request to cut tens of billions of dollars next year, I would like to talk about what is
00:41happening right now. The American people are demanding health with a cost of living, but
00:46President Trump is not laser focused on the cost of living crisis. He is actually making it worse.
00:52He promised to fight for the working class, but instead put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge
00:57of the government and you to destroy everything we know about good public health.
01:04Mr. Secretary, the administration is recklessly and unlawfully freezing and stealing
01:10congressionally appropriated funds from a wide swath of agencies, programs, and services across
01:18the government that serve the American people. And recall that this is a violation of the
01:23Constitution. The power of the purse resides with the Congress. It's Article 1, Section 9,
01:30Clause 7. Yourself and President Trump and Elon Musk are attacking health programs to pay for tax cuts
01:37for billionaires. And by promoting quackery, we are endangering the health of the American people
01:42with pseudoscience, fear mongering, and misinformation. Governments should fight for the middle class,
01:48the working class, and the vulnerable, not the interests of billionaires like Elon Musk. Instead,
01:55with you at the helm, the Trump administration and Republicans in the Congress are destroying the
01:59crown jewels of our health system. The National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and
02:06Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. At the NIH, the world's largest funder of life-saving
02:13biomedical research, you and Elon Musk have fired or driven out nearly 5,000 personnel, including some
02:21of the world's most preeminent scientists, frozen billions of dollars in research to develop cures for
02:26cancer, Alzheimer's disease, women's health, and the list goes on. China and Europe are taking advantage of
02:33this disaster by recruiting American scientists away from the United States. China wants to overtake us
02:39as a global leader in health research and innovation. You and President Trump are aiding and abetting
02:44them. Two weeks ago, I called a hearing on cuts on the cuts to CDC because the Republican majority is
02:51refusing to hold this administration accountable for its wanton destruction. As part of your drastic
02:57and haphazard purge of CDC, you and Elon Musk eliminated entire divisions without consideration of
03:05what is being lost. More than 70 percent of CDC's funding is provided to state and local jurisdictions.
03:13These cuts affect families and communities and every one of our districts. These cuts are dangerous.
03:21Dr. Peter Marks, the country's top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration,
03:26helped to develop the COVID vaccines at record speed under the first Trump administration.
03:32Dr. Marks was told to resign or be fired. In his resignation letter, Dr. Marks wrote that,
03:39and I quote, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary,
03:45but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies, end quote.
03:51Mr. Secretary, Dr. Marks was talking about your misinformation. He was talking about your lies
03:58about vaccines. Mr. Secretary, you are gutting the life-saving work of the Department of Health and
04:04Human Services and its key agencies, while the Republicans in this Congress say and do nothing.
04:12But the destruction of HHS is not limited to NIH, CDC, and the FDA. Mr. Secretary, you are eliminating entire
04:19agencies that have saved the lives of someone near and dear to each and every one of us. Because of
04:26these cuts, people will die. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA,
04:33eliminated. Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA, which as you know is
04:38responsible for ensuring access to health care for the uninsured, isolated, and vulnerable people,
04:43eliminated. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, ASPR, which was created to
04:49prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, eliminated. The Administration for Community Living,
04:55ACL, eliminated, hurting seniors and people with disabilities. You can make the baseless claim that
05:01you are simply reorganizing these functions of HHS all you want. It is simply a matter of fact that you
05:06cannot cut the department's budget and maintain all of its life-saving programs and services. HHS has closed
05:14half of its regional offices, which serve 22 states and five territories. 20,000 HHS employees are gone.
05:22And Republicans have set the stage to cut Medicaid benefits from people who rely on that program
05:28to see a doctor, including roughly half of our nation's children. HHS has terminated more than $12
05:35billion in funding for state and local health departments, including funding for mental health,
05:41substance use programs, treatment, sabotaging our progress in addressing the opioid crisis.
05:48Mr. Secretary, you are eliminating scores of CDC prevention programs, including HIV, tobacco,
05:55drowning, asthma, lead poisoning, and gun violence. Why on earth are these the places you are terminating
06:03for so-called waste? The life of a teenager that does not become addicted to cigarettes or injured
06:10by a firearm is not waste. Last month, you wrote in the New York Post, and I quote,
06:19America has the highest rates of chronic disease in the world. We rank last in terms of health among
06:26developed nations, and life expectancy is declining for many groups of Americans.
06:32Mr. Secretary, much of what you wrote is true, but it is confounding and incomprehensible to then turn
06:40around and eliminate the CDC Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. And with
06:46respect to views on vaccine, quite frankly, I believe you are promoting quackery. Under your watch,
06:53our country is now failing to contain vaccine-preventable diseases. Measles, a disease
06:58eliminated in the United States just decades ago, has now claimed the lives of three Americans,
07:02including two children who died needlessly. And over 1,000 are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
07:09All while you peddle unfounded and dangerous vaccine skepticism, spread lies and misinformation
07:15about people living with autism. Vaccine programs for millions of Americans, including children,
07:21we do that so that they do not get these diseases like measles. This is not a waste. The thousands
07:27of experts and experienced staff who help keep Americans safe from global infectious diseases like
07:32measles, polio, HIV, tuberculosis, and Ebola are not waste. These programs help to save the lives of men,
07:39women, and children from all walks of life in this country. And you have decimated the Food and Drug
07:45Administration by firing 3,500 employees, taking a wrecking ball to FDA's food safety mandate.
07:52You talk about making our food supply healthier while gutting the support staff for critical
07:57inspections of things like baby formula. You talk about closing the generally recognized as safe
08:04or grass loophole, which allows food companies to determine the safety of their own ingredients,
08:10something that I have advocated for years, but while firing staff in charge of food and chemical
08:16reassessment. The former Deputy Commissioner of the Human Foods Program resigned in February, writing,
08:22and I quote, I was looking forward to working to pursue the department's agenda of improving the
08:27health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food. It has been
08:35increasingly clear that with the Trump Administration's disdain for the very people necessary to implement
08:42your agenda. However, it would have been fruitless for me to continue in this role." End quote. That's a
08:50damning indictment of your work on food safety. I'm worried. I'm worried about a future public health
08:55crisis that emerges once the Trump Administration has fully dismantled the nation's public health system.
09:02We are currently in the midst of an outbreak of avian influenza, and this administration is woefully
09:09unprepared to protect Americans and mitigate its impacts if it transforms to be transmittable from
09:16person to person. This is all happening today, right now. We are not talking about hypotheticals or
09:23what-ifs or worst-case scenarios. This destruction has happened and is happening today, right now. Even though
09:31we received President Trump's concept of a budget plan on Friday, we are now into May without a real
09:37budget from the White House. Mr. Secretary, in the budget outline, you are asking Congress to cut funding
09:44for health programs by $33 billion, a cut of more than 25 percent. You are asking Congress to cut CDC by
09:53nearly $4 billion, NIH research by $18 billion, and you claim to be reorganizing NIH. Any reorganizing
10:02of NIH must go through the Congress. We need to hold public hearings, engage in a thoughtful process
10:09to incorporate the best ideas to advance NIH as a crown jewel of biomedical research. Mr. Secretary,
10:16you have no lawful authority to undertake this by yourself. These are vital institutions built up
10:22over decades that protect Americans' health and the health of people around the world. I do not
10:27believe the American people want less cancer research, fewer people tracking infectious diseases, but that
10:33is exactly what this budget will deliver. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, driven in part by
10:39skyrocketing health care costs, and you and Elon Musk and President Trump are making it worse. You are
10:45wreaking havoc at every level of our most critical health institutions. You are jeopardizing our
10:50families' health for the sake of billionaire tax cuts, but we are seeing pushback at every level. The
10:57public is outraged at the enormous harms you have wrought. Dozens of courts have put restraining
11:02orders on the administration's actions, but the courts can only play defense. Republicans in this Congress
11:08could stop the mayhem, the chaos, and the destruction today if they had the courage, but they remain
11:15silent, petrified of the president's scorn, revenge, and retaliation. Those of us who serve in elected office,
11:24we are blessed and we have the power to do something. We know what's right and we know what's wrong,
11:31and we understand the harm being wrought on the American people. We need to stand up, not be afraid.
11:38This is the time to meet the moment. As a top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, I will
11:43never stop fighting against this dangerous dismantling of Health and Human Services and its
11:49agencies, which is jeopardizing the health, the safety, and the well-being of millions of America's
11:56families. Thank you. I look forward to your testimony and to the important conversations
12:02we will have in this hearing this morning. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
