[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), today delivered an opening statement at a public forum exposing the ways in which the Trump Administration has made children and families more vulnerable to illness and disease. The forum, convened by Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called attention to the Trump Administration's reckless cuts to research, destruction of public health agencies, attempts to take away life-saving vaccines, and actions to reward polluters at the expense of the American people's health.

"The Trump Administration is committing a historic assault on public health, more severe than we've seen at any point in our lifetime. They've launched a series of baseless smears on vaccines that have resulted in many of those long-suppressed illnesses roaring back. They've gutted basic research into cancer and other devastating illnesses. They have promised to, quote, Make America Healthy Again but freed polluters to dump forever chemicals into our nation's drinking water. And they are essentially threatening progress that has taken decades to achieve and doing damage that will take decades to undo," Blumenthal said at the forum.

Blumenthal continued, sounding the alarm about the Trump Administration's funding cuts to research, "There are real-life outcomes to these cuts in NIH-supported research. They have shuttered offices on violence prevention and workplace injuries. They have stopped grants that prevent drug overdoses and respond to mental health crises. They've shackled careers of public servants who help review the safety of drugs and medical devices. These workers and programs have saved and bettered countless American lives."

Blumenthal raised concerns about the effect the Trump Administration's actions have had on global Ebola response efforts: "The Administration's senseless and frequently illegal decisions are leaving us more and more vulnerable to a public health crisis that could explode at any moment. In fact, we're seeing it exploding right now in Africa with Ebola, where our cuts have consequences that are visible in graves, literally in deaths that could be prevented. In just 18 months in office, Trump has hampered our ability to respond to this kind of growing crisis."

"I'm hoping that this message will break through the clutter of different media and messages that are out there literally every day of the week, every hour of the day. Because what should really matter in making America healthy again is support for these public health initiatives that have taken so much hard work to build, and now, are in such grave danger of destruction," Blumenthal concluded.

The full transcript of Blumenthal's remarks is available below. A video is available here.

Thank you so much, Representative Garcia. I'm very grateful to you and your staff, as well as my own, for bringing us together today on this critical topic where public awareness and education are absolutely vital, and where our witnesses have contributed so much. I want to thank you for being here today. But more importantly, thank you for the great work that you have done throughout your careers, literally putting your lives and your professional reputations on the line in favor of real public health.

The Trump Administration is committing a historic assault on public health, more severe than we've seen at any point in our lifetime. They've launched a series of baseless smears on vaccines that have resulted in many of those long-suppressed illnesses roaring back. They've gutted basic research into cancer and other devastating illnesses. They have promised to, quote, Make America Healthy Again but freed polluters to dump forever chemicals into our nation's drinking water. And they are essentially threatening progress that has taken decades to achieve and doing damage that will take decades to undo.

If nothing else, they are on the verge of destroying a lot of young careers. Researchers who are going into other lines of work, abandoning promising potential cures for diseases, cures that can save lives.

There are real-life outcomes to these cuts in NIH-supported research. They have shuttered offices on violence prevention and workplace injuries. They have stopped grants that prevent drug overdoses and respond to mental health crises. They've shackled careers of public servants who help review the safety of drugs and medical devices.

These workers and programs have saved and bettered countless American lives. Their undeniable success has long earned them bipartisan support. We have always seen bipartisan support for the NIH, for cancer research, for even gun violence prevention and workplace safety. And now they are driving wedges where before we had consensus.

The results are undeniable. The Administration's senseless and frequently illegal decisions are leaving us more and more vulnerable to a public health crisis that could explode at any moment. In fact, we're seeing it exploding right now in Africa with Ebola, where our cuts have consequences that are visible in graves, literally in deaths that could be prevented. In just 18 months in office, Trump has hampered our ability to respond to this kind of growing crisis. In fact, on this first day of his second term, he announced the United States withdrawal from the World Health Organization. It was never anything partisan or political about the World Health Organization in its work. This kind of rash choice hinders our ability to lead the world, and the world needs leadership in public health.

Weeks later, he eliminated USAID, an agency created by Congress, whose emergency pandemic threats program was central to our ability to respond quickly to past outbreaks, including Ebola.

There's a lot more I could say, but we really want to hear from our witnesses. So let me just say again, I'm grateful to you for being here today. I'm hoping that this message will break through the clutter of different media and messages that are out there literally every day of the week, every hour of the day. Because what should really matter in making America healthy again is support for these public health initiatives that have taken so much hard work to build, and now, are in such grave danger of destruction.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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