{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/hickenlooper-alsobrooks-blumenthal-blunt-rochester-heinrich-kim-markey-schiff-van-hollen-introduce-bill-to-protect-scientific-standards-safeguard-acip-vaccine-committee/", "Hickenlooper, Alsobrooks, Blumenthal, Blunt Rochester, Heinrich, Kim, Markey, Schiff, Van Hollen Introduce Bill to Protect Scientific Standards, Safeguard ACIP Vaccine Committee", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "John W. Hickenlooper", "H000273", "www.hickenlooper.senate.gov", "hickenlooper", "https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press/page/", "scraper", "Senators introduce bill ahead of ACIP\u2019s meeting tomorrow to revisit hepatitis B, other childhood shots\n\nThis year, HHS Secretary replaced all 17 non-partisan experts on CDC\u2019s top vaccine committee, attacked settled science\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, Angela Alsobrooks, Richard Blumenthal, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Martin Heinrich, Andy Kim, Ed Markey, Adam Schiff, and Chris Van Hollen introduced the Family Vaccine Protection Act to protect Americans\u2019 access to vaccines and to safeguard proven science from recent Trump administration efforts to undermine vaccines. The senators\u2019 bill comes as the CDC\u2019s top vaccine panel meets tomorrow to discuss \u2013 and potentially vote on \u2013 updates to the childhood vaccine schedule, including the hepatitis B vaccine.\n\n\u201cVaccine decisions should be grounded in facts \u2013 not conspiracy theories,\u201d said Hickenlooper, member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. \u201cThis administration\u2019s senseless attacks on science erodes Americans\u2019 trust in public health and undermines families\u2019 access to safe vaccines. Our bill protects science and restores Americans\u2019 confidence that vaccine recommendations are rooted in data, not politics.\u201d\n\n\u201cI became the first Senator to call on RFK Jr. to resign or be fired because he is unqualified and his dangerous agenda was clear from day one: politicize our life-saving immunization schedule. In the meantime, I will fight tooth and nail to keep our families healthy and safe despite the Secretary\u2019s efforts to the contrary. That\u2019s why the Senate must pass our Family Vaccine Protection Act \u2013 to protect families from vaccine-preventable diseases,\u201d said Alsobrooks.\n\n\u201cThis legislation protects access to essential vaccines and counters the Trump Administration\u2019s senseless corruption of science. By prioritizing conspiracy theories over science, Trump is depriving Americans of basic public health. Vaccines save lives\u2014it\u2019s simple. Americans need them,\u201d said Blumenthal.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m proud to be joining my colleagues in introducing the Family Vaccine Protection Act. For decades, Americans have counted on ACIP for safe, reliable, and science-backed guidance on vaccines. Now, thanks to Secretary Kennedy\u2019s reckless actions and continued vaccine skepticism, families are faced with conspiracy theories and confusion,\u201d said Blunt Rochester, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. \u201cThis bill builds upon our work to defend health and safety amidst Secretary Kennedy\u2019s dismantling of our public health institutions and norms. As we enter the peak of the flu season, families in Delaware and across our nation need clarity. It\u2019s long past time to get politics out of public health.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmericans expect our public health decisions to be guided by facts and science in order to keep families and children safe from preventable diseases. Instead at every turn Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have undermined Americans\u2019 health and safety by installing vaccine skeptics and deniers in key roles, and jeopardizing children\u2019s access to lifesaving vaccines,\u201d said Schiff. \u201cI\u2019m proud to join my colleagues in introducing the Family Vaccine Protection Act to fight back against Trump\u2019s war on science and health care, and to ensure all communities have access to the preventative care they need.\u201d\n\nThe bill codifies the structure and practices of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a 60-year-old federal panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends who should get vaccines and when. It strengthens transparency into how vaccine guidance is developed and adopted, reinforces science-based decision-making, and ensures accountability in the nation\u2019s vaccine process.\n\nACIP\u2019s recommendations inform which vaccines are covered by insurers and government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Vaccines for Children, which provides free vaccines to more than half of the children in the U.S.\n\nThe senators\u2019 legislation comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. undermined the ACIP and replaced all 17 non-partisan scientific experts with ideologues who have a history of undermining vaccines. Two weeks after RFK Jr. replaced all of the committee\u2019s members, the new ACIP announced plans to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule, putting access to vaccines that children have received for decades, such as hepatitis B and polio, in danger. The new ACIP also invited a known vaccine denier and conspiracy theorist to speak on vaccines, and then made recommendations based solely on her pseudoscience-filled presentation.\n\nThis attack on settled vaccine science comes as the U.S. faces the highest total number of measles cases in 33 years, including the first measles deaths in the country in a decade.\n\nSpecifically, the Family Vaccine Protection Act would:\n\nEstablish guardrails to ensure vaccines remain accessible to all:\n\nProtect the role of ACIP recommendations in programs like the Vaccine for Children Program and ensure that health insurance plans provide cost-free coverage for vaccines recommended by ACIP.\n\nCodify current rigorous, science-based processes for recommending vaccines:\n\nSet a timeline for new vaccine consideration by ACIP\n\nRequire that both the CDC Director and HHS Secretary adopt such recommendations if supported by a majority of the scientific evidence.\n\nStrengthen the independence of the Advisory Committee:\n\nWrite the role of ACIP into statute and specify its structure, its membership selection processes, meeting frequency, and expertise requirements to protect it from dissolution or undue interference by the HHS secretary.\n\nEnsure the Secretary cannot unilaterally make or withdraw vaccine recommendations contrary to the advice of scientific experts:\n\nRequire the HHS secretary to adopt the official vaccine decision as set by ACIP\n\nRequire the secretary to publish the basis for the agency action, including an explanation as to how the action is supported by the best available, peer-reviewed scientific evidence, if the secretary chooses to depart from an ACIP recommendation.\n\nHickenlooper has been a fierce critic of the admin\u2019s senseless attacks on American science. He called out RFK Jr.\u2019s latest efforts to undermine Americans\u2019 access to safe vaccines, helped launch an investigation into RFK Jr.\u2019s decision to replace the ACIP experts, raised alarm about the mass firings at HHS, and demanded answers on how the firing of IVF researchers at the CDC will impact families seeking fertility treatment.\n\nEarlier this year, he also questioned RFK Jr. on his public anti-science views and plans regarding transparency in NIH studies during RFK Jr.\u2019s HELP confirmation hearing. Hickenlooper voted no on RFK Jr.\u2019s nomination.\n\nThe bill is endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, The American Public Health Association, The Infectious Disease Society of America, and American Federation of Teachers (AFT): Education, Healthcare, Public Services.\n\nRepresentatives Frank Pallone and Kim Schrier introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nFull text of the bill is available HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/hickenlooper-alsobrooks-blumenthal-blunt-rochester-heinrich-kim-markey-schiff-van-hollen-introduce-bill-to-protect-scientific-standards-safeguard-acip-vaccine-committee/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9832549840211868, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}