Bennet, Schumer, Schrier, 88 Colleagues Demand Rescission of Trump’s Dangerous Childhood Vaccine Executive Order

Aug 18, 2026 | Press Releases

Denver - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and U.S. Representative Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) led 88 colleagues in demanding President Donald Trump rescind his executive order that directs federal health agencies to overhaul longstanding childhood vaccine recommendations and encourages states to reconsider school immunization requirements.

Trump's anti-science executive order creates chaos and confusion just as millions of families across the country are preparing for the school year and are relying on science-based vaccine recommendations to protect their children and communities from preventable diseases.

"At a moment when the United States is experiencing the highest surge in measles cases in thirty-five years and an increasing number of states forced to declare public health emergencies - your administration is placing more children in harm's way rather than protecting them. This Executive Order overrides decades of scientific evidence and sows fear, chaos, and confusion. The result will not be safer or healthier children; it will be a continued decline in vaccination rates, recurring disease outbreaks, higher healthcare costs, and school disruptions that cause learning loss. Vaccines are rigorously tested and monitored for safety, and save millions of lives each year - especially the lives of children," wrote the lawmakers.

Since being confirmed, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unleashed a methodical campaign to substitute decades of science with an anti-vaccine ideology.

Specifically, Trump's latest directive pushes to break up combination vaccines into single-disease doses, ignoring the medical community's long-standing, evidence-backed agreement that combination vaccines are safe, effective, and specifically timed to protect children when they need it most. The executive order forces families to schedule multiple doctors' appointments with multiple co-pays, which adds unnecessary chaos, confusion, and financial strain. Compounding this issue is the deep Medicaid cuts under Trump's One Big, Beautiful Big Act that have drastically cut access to care and increased cost burdens for low-income families.

Notably, single-disease shots for routine childhood vaccines, like measles, mumps, and rubella, simply do not exist in the U.S. market. Demanding parents and pediatricians switch to non-existent vaccines creates mass confusion, stalls routine care right as children head back to school, and forces drug manufacturers into a years-long regulatory pipeline.

Additionally, this executive order directs the Department of Justice to push back on longstanding state school immunization requirements, ignoring 81 percent of parents who agree that public schools should require essential immunizations like measles and polio vaccines.

"The health and safety of America's children must not be sacrificed for political theater and ideology. American children and their families deserve robust evidence-based immunization recommendations that are rooted in science. The administration's politicization of vaccines makes American families less safe, threatens to return the U.S. to an era before routine vaccination prevented millions of infections, and is already resulting in unnecessary suffering and preventable deaths, particularly among children," continued the lawmakers.

"Every day this Executive Order remains in effect, more children go without the vaccines that would protect them, additional outbreaks become more likely, and lives are put at risk. We urge you to rescind this Executive Order immediately and restore evidence-based decision-making to federal public health policy," concluded the lawmakers.

Bennet has constantly fought against Trump and Kennedy's anti-science agenda. Bennet issued a statement immediately following the announcement of Trump's executive order directing federal health agencies to overhaul longstanding childhood vaccine recommendations and encouraging states to reconsider school immunization requirements. In April 2026, Bennet questioned Kennedy during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his skepticism of childhood vaccines amidst the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. in over thirty years. Additionally, in March 2025 and 2026, Bennet joined in sending a letter to Kennedy to demand the department reverse changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration websites that promote false and dangerous information about autism. In September 2025, he questioned Kennedy during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his actions undermining vaccine safety and access for American families. Bennet also joined members of the Senate Finance Committee in issuing a statement calling on Kennedy to resign due to the danger he poses to America's health, his lies to Congress, and his spread of disinformation.

In addition to Bennet, Schumer, and Schrier, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-Del.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as Representatives Gabe Amo (D-R.I), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Nikki Budzinski (D-IlI.), Troy Carter (D-La.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Robin Kelly (D-IlI.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IlI.), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), John Mannion (D-N.Y.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Brittney Pettersen (D-Colo.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Mike Quigley (D-IlI.), Emily Randall (D-Wash.), Jan Schakowsky (D-IlI.), Brad Schneider (D-IlI.), Eric Sorensen (D-IlI.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Dina Titus (D- Nev.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Richie Torres (D-N.Y.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) signed this letter.

The text of the letter is available HERE and below.

Dear President Trump:

Every August, millions of American families participate in the familiar late-summer ritual of gathering school supplies, scheduling annual wellness checkups, and preparing their children to step back into the classroom. For decades, parents have trusted these routine doctor visits to protect their children against preventable, life-threatening diseases. Your August 10, 2026, Executive Order, "Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans" shatters that consensus. We write to insist that you rescind it immediately.

At a moment when the United States is experiencing the highest surge in measles cases in thirty-five years and an increasing number of states forced to declare public health emergencies - your administration is placing more children in harm's way rather than protecting them. This Executive Order overrides decades of scientific evidence and sows fear, chaos, and confusion. The result will not be safer or healthier children; it will be a continued decline in vaccination rates, recurring disease outbreaks, higher healthcare costs, and school disruptions that cause learning loss. Vaccines are rigorously tested and monitored for safety, and save millions of lives each year - especially the lives of children.

Unfortunately, this directive is only the latest step in a systematic campaign by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to substitute anti-vaccine ideology for decades of scientific evidence. Since being confirmed, Secretary Kennedy has:

1. Fired all seventeen independent members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with unvetted ideologues who have a history of undermining vaccines.
2. Peddled unproven treatments as alternatives to safe, effective vaccines, like cod liver oil for measles, putting young children in the hospital with liver damage.
3. Pressured leadership of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to approve unscientific recommendations while removing vital public health information and publishing false or misleading claims on agency websites, such as the CDC's autism and vaccines page.
4. Canceled critical mRNA research and endorsed false claims that mRNA vaccines cause widespread harm and repeatedly spread disproven theories linking vaccines to autism, despite dozens of studies proving otherwise.
5. Attempted to alter the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in a manner that threatened to drive vaccine manufacturers out of the market entirely.

This latest directive encouraging the breakup of combination vaccines, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shot, into single-disease doses over multiple doctor's visits defies medical evidence and places additional burdens on families. Leading medical professionals agree that combination vaccines are safe, effective, and specifically timed to protect children when they require that immunity. Moreover, separate single-dose options for MMR are not even currently available in the United States, meaning drug manufacturers would be forced to navigate a complex, years-long approval process. This order leaves parents with inconsistent, muddled advice, further stoking unfounded fears about vaccine safety, despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of universal immunization for the MMR vaccine. That is not "gold standard" medicine. It is manufactured chaos.

Forcing parents to schedule and pay co-pays for multiple medical visits for immunizations that were previously administered at a single appointment creates financial and logistical hardship, and is cruel to children. These burdens are compounded by the severe cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act enacted under the One Big, Beautiful Big Act, which are leaving working families without access to a primary care physician. Moreover, it increases burden for pediatricians who already face packed schedules.

Finally, directing the Department of Justice to challenge long-standing state school immunization requirements perpetuates dangerous uncertainty in local communities and directly threatens public health. Overturning established, evidence-based vaccine policies creates a chaotic patchwork of rules that leaves parents, school districts, and health officials without clear guidance, while ignoring the vast majority of parents (81%) who agree that public schools should require students to receive essential immunizations like the measles and polio vaccines.

The health and safety of America's children must not be sacrificed for political theater and ideology. American children and their families deserve robust evidence-based immunization recommendations that are rooted in science. The administration's politicization of vaccines makes American families less safe, threatens to return the U.S. to an era before routine vaccination prevented millions of infections, and is already resulting in unnecessary suffering and preventable deaths, particularly among children.

Every day this Executive Order remains in effect, more children go without the vaccines that would protect them, additional outbreaks become more likely, and lives are put at risk. We urge you to rescind this Executive Order immediately and restore evidence-based decision-making to federal public health policy.

###