Patty Murray Warns Of Possible Repercussions From RFK Jr.’s HHS Cuts: ‘I’m Very Concerned’

2 days ago

During a press briefing on Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) answered a question about the consequences of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s announcement to downsize the HHS.

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00:00I have a question on a separate topic, but it's a little related to the issue of funding.

00:04I saw this letter that you all sent to OMB regarding spending, and I'm curious what recourse...

00:09Are you talking about the letter that Susan Collins and I sent today?

00:12Yes, Susan Collins sent.

00:13I'm wondering what recourse you think you might have if you don't get a desirable response

00:16from the administration on what they're going to do with this funding and this spending.

00:19Well, this isn't a question.

00:22It's a matter of law.

00:23Under law, bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans, as Senator Collins and I stated this,

00:28the president doesn't have a choice to pick and choose which parts of emergency spending

00:33he can allocate for.

00:35We are telling him, this is the law, allocate the funding.

00:41A big theme of President Trump's administration so far has been sending stuff back to the state levels.

00:46Can you clarify what of these cuts can be picked up by the state-level health agencies?

00:50I can tell you this, right now today, and it's only 1 o'clock in my state,

00:55we are getting panicked calls from our health agencies about what funding is going to get cut off.

01:01We are in the middle of flu season.

01:03We are in the middle of a measles outbreak as well as whooping cough,

01:07and these are the officials that are letting people know, here's where it's safe,

01:12here's where the outbreaks are, here's how you can protect ourselves.

01:15Are these offices going to be closed?

01:17Are people going to get the information?

01:19How are they going to decide?

01:21We're hearing that offices are going to close.

01:23Already our local and state and county officials are saying to us,

01:27oh my gosh, how are we going to do the jobs that people are counting us on?

01:31I can tell you from my state and many other states,

01:34they don't have the budgets to all of a sudden go,

01:36oh okay, excuse me, we'll just send a few more million dollars

01:39because Trump decided he's not going to do his federal obligation.

01:43They have to count on this funding,

01:45and to have it ripped away like this is just astounding to me.

01:50Do you have concerns that the impacts might be disproportionate,

01:54like regional versus urban communities or some states versus other states?

01:58I always have concerns.

02:01Often it's our rural communities who have the least amount of money

02:04to be able to do this kind of public health work

02:07that we are very seriously worried about losing.

02:11They are the folks that have the least amount of resources

02:15to be able to help out their constituents.

02:17They don't have the tax base.

02:19They don't have the manpower.

02:21They don't have all the infrastructure you need.

02:23So yeah, I'm very concerned about what this means for our rural communities.

02:28Can I ask, are you worried about the impact of the Trump contract on food safety?

02:32Absolutely.

02:34I mean, I'm always, Saturday morning, turn on the news,

02:37and they say, oh, you know, don't buy lettuce from some grocery store

02:40because of this and check the dates.

02:42We all go to our refrigerator and check the dates.

02:44What if we have to get up on Saturday morning and go,

02:47nobody's checking that, I hope everything in my refrigerator is okay.

02:50I mean, that's what they're putting at risk.

Patty Murray Warns Of Possible Repercussions From RFK Jr.’s HHS Cuts: ‘I’m Very Concerned’

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