At a Senate Health Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) questioned HHS Sec. RFK Jr. about cuts being made at HHS.
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00:00Thank you, Chairman Cassidy, Ranking Member Sanders, and welcome, Mr. Secretary.
00:12I have nothing personal against you, I don't even know you.
00:16But what I do know, as the former Deputy Secretary of Health and Social Services in Delaware,
00:23is how important your agency is to the lives of so many people in our country.
00:29During the confirmation, your confusion of Medicaid versus Medicare did not instill a lot of confidence.
00:39But today, as you talk about these budget cuts being painful,
00:46I am reminded of Delawareans who have come up to me and cried and said,
00:51please don't let folks take away my Medicaid, individuals with disabilities.
00:57While you talk about cutting this large, large department, there are talks about including more things in the department from the Department of Education.
01:08And so I'm concerned about that.
01:10And when we met in January, you committed to radical transparency and responding to all congressional inquiries within 30 days.
01:18Since then, we've sent dozens of letters.
01:22And to my knowledge, like Senator Hassan, I haven't received any responses.
01:28And given your stated commitment to transparency and your focus on efficiency and responsiveness in your opening comments,
01:36I think this is a great opportunity to get your commitment that you will respond to the letters from this committee,
01:44and also an opportunity to maybe talk about a few of the things that I wrote to you about.
01:51So let's begin with this letter.
01:53In March, I wrote to you expressing my concern about the delayed meeting of the federal vaccine experts, otherwise known as ACIP.
02:00The meeting of this committee is a key step in getting vaccines to millions of people, from babies to seniors.
02:07And delays can have negative impacts on vaccine accessibility and affordability.
02:12And while I'm glad that the meeting finally happened, we're quickly approaching flu season and the CDC still hasn't adopted the April recommendations.
02:20And I can understand the delay, given that there seems to be no current CDC director.
02:25So in the spirit of radical transparency, my question is, who is the acting CDC director?
02:32The acting director was Susan Minaris, but she is now up for permanent director.
02:45And so she's been replaced by Matt Bazzoli.
02:51Does this person have a medical background?
02:55I believe...
02:56Or public health expertise?
02:58He's a public health expert.
03:00Public health expert.
03:02So the fact that the recommendations are kind of stuck, and the fact that you kind of have...
03:10Can I clarify something?
03:14The ACIP does not do the flu shot.
03:19Yeah, I don't want to get into specifics of that.
03:22And those...
03:23That's...
03:24The flu shot was sent...
03:25My question was more about, do we have a CDC director?
03:29And then I want to enter into the record information about what harms could be caused until we get one.
03:37Is that a request?
03:38We want the director.
03:39We're relying on this committee, too.
03:41But this was my question.
03:42This is my turn.
03:43I'm the director.
03:45We are senators.
03:46And so I don't want to have the same exchange that happened before with other people.
03:50I just want to ask my questions.
03:52I wanted to shift gears.
03:53Your proposed compassionate budget would cut funding from multiple maternal and child health programs.
03:59And I know as a new parent, I remember learning that my baby should sleep on their back.
04:07The NIH Safe to Sleep campaign, you've shuttered.
04:10After launching this campaign in 1994, the rate of sudden infant deaths dropped by 50%.
04:17Many parents in this room maybe remember getting their children screened for hearing loss or rare diseases.
04:24That program has also been shuttered.
04:27You've cut programs that collect data on IVF, maternal health, infant mortality, all while President Trump is calling himself the fertilization president.
04:38None of these policies are based in compassion.
04:42And my only concern, even following up on Senator Kim's question, is understanding what goes into gutting a program that has increased the efficacy of parents being able to take care of their children.
05:00I will, my time is expired, but I will just say, again, a budget is a reflection of priorities.
05:10And to me, this budget, the cuts to Medicaid that are talked about right now across in the House of Representatives are going to have real, like you said, painful impacts on people's lives.
05:24And I hope there's some real compassion in the end.
05:28And I hope that you hear from our constituents as we are hearing from them as well.
05:33And we will continue to, we will continue to try to fight for them.
05:37So I yield back.
05:38You've left me no time to respond, but I can assure you that I will act with compassion.
05:43Senator Also Brooks.