Budget Hearing - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2025-05-14
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Who are pro-life? I'm encouraged by President Trump's tremendous success in getting our nation's border under control so quickly and so effectively. The President's success in securing our border directly benefits public health by reducing the incoming flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl, which has fallen by 54% since this time last year. And that's no small thing. Similarly, the President's border actions have significantly reduced the number of unaccompanied minors being trafficked into our country. I look forward to hearing from the Secretary about these efforts as well. I also look forward to learning more about the Secretary's plans to reform and reorganize the Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past two years, Secretary Kennedy has spoken eloquently to the American people about the urgent need for health care reform. He continued to make the case for reform as he partnered with President Trump to Make America Healthy Again movement. Last month, the Secretary announced a number of structural reform proposals within the Department of Health and Human Services and its numerous sub-agencies, including the establishment of a new administration for Healthy America. Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the preliminary details of this plan that you have shared with us, and I look forward to hearing more this morning. Congress has also been engaged on the urgent need to reform our health care agencies. Last year, I was pleased to work with our colleagues on the Energy and the Commerce Committee to initiate reform proposals for NIH, or the National Institute of Health.
I'm encouraged to see that the administration is building off of this process by making additional reform proposals at the National Institute of Health. I look forward to hearing more details about that, your proposal, and to continue on a dialogue between the Department and the Preparations Committee as we begin the budget process in Ernst. Mr. Secretary, I'm sure you know all too well that implementing reforms in Washington is no easy task. However, the President has asked you to take on this weighty challenge, and you have accepted that challenge. We here in Congress want to partner with you, bringing our own experience to the table as elected representatives of our communities. We share your goal to make America healthy again, and we look forward this morning to your testimony here today. And with that, I'd like to turn to our ranking member of the Preparations Committee, Ms. DeLauro, for any opening remarks that she may have. Ms. DeLauro, you're recognized.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding what is a very critically important hearing on President Trump's disastrous budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary Kennedy, good morning to you. We welcome you to the House Appropriations Committee for your first budget hearing. However, I cannot thank you for the Trump administration's budget request to cut funding for important health programs by $33 billion. Quite frankly, I view it as a disgrace. Under your budget proposal, Americans would die of needless and preventable deaths. But before we talk about the request to cut tens of billions of dollars next year, I would like to talk about what is happening right now. The American people are demanding health with a cost of living, but President Trump is not laser focused on the cost of living crisis. He is actually making it worse. He promised to fight for the working class, but instead put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge of the government. And you? To destroy everything we know about good public health. Mr. Secretary, the administration is recklessly and unlawfully freezing and stealing congressionally appropriated funds from a wide swath of agencies, programs, and services across the government that serve the American people. And recall that this is a violation of the Constitution. The power of the purse resides with the Congress. It's Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7. Yourself and President Trump and Elon Musk are attacking health programs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. And by promoting quackery, we are endangering the health of the American people with pseudoscience, fear-mongering, and misinformation. Governments should fight for the middle class, the working class, and the vulnerable. Not the interests of billionaires like Elon Musk. Instead, with you at the helm, the Trump administration and Republicans in the Congress are destroying the crown jewels of our health system.
The National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. At the NIH, the world's largest funder of lifesaving biomedical research, you and Elon Musk have fired or driven out nearly 5,000 personnel, including some of the world's most preeminent scientists, frozen billions of dollars in research to develop cures for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, women's health, and the list goes on. China? and Europe are taking advantage of this disaster by recruiting American scientists away from the United States. China wants to overtake us as a global leader in health research and innovation. You and President Trump are aiding and abetting them. Two weeks ago, I called a hearing on the cuts to CDC because the Republican majority is refusing to hold this administration accountable for its wanton destruction.
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