Chairman Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Confirmation Hearing on Nominations for HHS, CDC

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today's confirmation hearing for Sean Kaufman to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Erica Schwartz, M.D. to be Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Click here to watch the full hearing.

Cassidy's opening remarks as prepared for delivery can be found below:

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

Dr. Schwartz, Mr. Kaufman, I appreciate you appearing before the Committee and for your willingness to serve.

When I went to LSU there was a gentleman named Tom Keester. I drove him to work every day for three years. His polio made him a quadriplegic.

I sat next to a man who was a quadriplegic because of a disease that could have been prevented with a routine, inexpensive vaccine.

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 and expensive surgery that could have been avoided through a safe, effective, and proven vaccination.

As I saw her take off, I was so depressed, a $30 vaccine could have prevented this all.

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%. That progress demonstrates a simple truth: vaccines are effective, prevent disease, and save lives.

We have a problem. The American people no longer trust our public health institutions. They didn't under President Biden. They don't under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy.

The agencies you seek to lead are integral to the United States' public health and medical preparedness and response capabilities. In order to do your jobs, you will need buy-in from the American people.

According to a recent study, the percentage of US adults reporting high confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fell from 82% in February 2020 to 56% in June 2022, along with decreasing trust in other US health institutions.

Mr. Kaufman and Dr. Schwartz, you are both intelligent and experienced individuals. You have the opportunity, and I'd say the responsibility, to rebuild public trust. The U.S. needs to be ready for the next emergency - an Ebola outbreak in Africa spreading across the globe, Cyclosporiasis causing outbreaks throughout the U.S., a shortage of critical supplies and treatments to respond to health threats. We need smarter strategies and to make better investments with the limited resources we have, whether at CDC, BARDA, the Strategic National Stockpile, or ASPR's industrial base programs.

How did we get here?

Well for one, a lot of mistakes were made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Biden administration, the CDC failed to communicate crucial information and allowed outside political groups like teachers' unions to influence whether schools were safe to be open or not instead of relying on the scientific data.

ASPR is less well known to the public but plays a key logistical role in ensuring responders have the supplies they need when and where they need them. Many who had personal protective equipment were using expired products, leftover from the H1N1 "swine" flu a decade prior.

In addition to deploying products and supporting U.S. manufacturing, ASPR coordinates the federal medical response and supports the development of lifesaving tests, treatments and vaccines. ASPR played a leading role in Operation Warp Speed, demonstrating what can be accomplished when government works quickly and effectively with the private sector.

Beyond COVID, misinformation about the safety of routine vaccines is causing more skepticism. Moms and dads are confused about whether vaccines are safe to give their children.

Parents should not have to guess whether information on CDC's website reflects the best available science rather than the preferences of political appointees. This misinformation has led to children being hospitalized and dying from diseases preventable with a vaccine.

Let me be clear. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and effective. They save countless lives. Study after study shows they do not cause autism. Hepatitis B is not just transmitted sexually or through drug users and the best way to stop someone from ending up with costly and expensive renal failure is through a birth dose.

As a physician, I had patients dying from diseases that had they been immunized they would be alive, healthy and whole. I want to be clear. Any equivocation on these facts and I will not be able to support your nomination.

When trust is destroyed it's hard to be effective.

I go back to being a doctor, you got to search for the truth and use the truth for your solutions. That is the only way you make the correct diagnosis.

Mr. Kaufman, since we met in my office, which was a very pleasant visit, things have come to light in the press regarding your positions on these topics. You reportedly have previously made comments regarding vaccines causing autism and questioned the necessity of a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccines.

Today you will have the opportunity to explain those comments.

Turmoil at the top of the nation's top public health agency is not good for the health of the American people. It also raises questions about how other public health and medical agencies, like ASPR, operate. We need leaders who are unbiased, who make decisions based on science, not politics or ideology, and who are committed to protecting children's health.

Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have expressed regret for not voting to confirm Dr. Monarez to lead the CDC. Today, we once again have a very strong nominee to lead the CDC, and I implore you to listen with an open mind and consider supporting a highly qualified nominee who is committed to facts and science.

If confirmed, Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Kaufman, you will both be tasked with bringing stability and restoring public trust in HHS. I look forward to hearing how you will accomplish this mission.

With that, I recognize Senator Sanders.

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