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Chair Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Nomination for HHS Secretary


WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s hearing on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

Click here to watch the hearing. 

Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.

Bobby, thank you for appearing before the committee and for your willingness to serve the country.

You and I have talked at length about a variety of issues impacting Americans’ health. These have been candid conversations. I appreciate your engagement.

There are many things you and I agree on. We need to address hyper-processed foods and reduce obesity, which leads to other chronic diseases and shorter lifespans. This will be a priority in the Committee and I look forward to collaborating if you are confirmed.

But I do have reservations with your past on vaccines and some other issues.

Before I entered politics or ever even thought about running for office. I practiced medicine for 30 years, working in public hospitals in Louisiana, specializing in liver disease. Caring for those who otherwise would not have a specialist. If you will, dedicating my life to saving lives. That is being a doctor.

Now, there was a moment in my career that really informs me right now. In the early 2000s I was loading my patient, an 18-year-old, young lady into a Medi-vac helicopter. She had acute hepatitis B. 

Barely an adult, her entire life ahead of her — and all the hopes and dreams she might have wanted to cram into it — wiped away if we didn’t get her to the LSU hospital in Shreveport for an emergency liver transplant. 

A transplant, an invasive, quarter-of-a-million-dollar surgery—in 2000—that, even if successful, would leave this young woman with a lifetime of $50,000 per year medical bills.  

As I saw her take off, I was so depressed, a $50 of vaccine could have prevented this all. 

 

This was an inflection point in my medical career. Ever since, I have tried to do everything I can so that I do not ever have to see another parent lose their child due to a vaccine preventable illness.

 

I worked with community and business leaders to form a public-private partnership program in the Capital Region of Louisiana that vaccinated 36,000 school children for Hepatitis B. Since recommendations to vaccinate all children were implemented, the number of hepatitis B cases has declined 89%.

As a physician who has been involved in immunization programs, I have seen the benefits of vaccinations. I know they save lives. They are a crucial part of this nation’s public health response. 

Bobby, you have a tremendous following. In fact, there are many who trust you more than they trust their own doctor. The question I need an answer to is what are you going to do with that trust?


Whether you will say rightfully or wrongfully, I have constituents who attribute your messages, in part, for their decision to not vaccinate their children. I’m hearing from them. They want you confirmed.

You are telling us in the Senate this week that you support vaccines. What are you going to tell them?

Now, your past of undermining vaccine confidence with unfounded or misleading arguments is concerning to me.

Can I trust that that is now in the past? Can data and information change your opinion, or will you only look for data that supports your predetermined conclusion? This is imperative, if you have the responsibility to restore trust in our public health institutions as the nation’s top health official.

I want President Trump to be successful. And any action you take as HHS secretary will shape his legacy. I want to be confident you will help make it a positive one.

Thank you again for coming before this committee and being willing to serve. I look forward to today’s conversation.

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