{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/hickenlooper-help-committee-democrats-call-for-secretary-kennedy-to-testify-before-committee/", "Hickenlooper, HELP Committee Democrats Call for Secretary Kennedy to Testify Before Committee", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "John W. Hickenlooper", "H000273", "www.hickenlooper.senate.gov", "hickenlooper", "https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press/page/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, along with all the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Democratic senators, called on Chairman Bill Cassidy to immediately hold an oversight hearing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.\n\n\u201cSince assuming office, Secretary Kennedy has waged an unprecedented war on science and vaccines that have saved millions of lives,\u201d Hickenlooper and his colleagues wrote. \u201cVaccination rates across the country are falling. Children are dying from illnesses that vaccines could have prevented.\u201d\n\n\u201cSecretary Kennedy\u2019s response to these crises has been to spread misinformation, end campaigns encouraging flu vaccinations, fire officials who disagree with him, and place individuals with significant conflicts of interest in positions of power \u2013 completely undermining Americans\u2019 faith in our nation\u2019s public health institutions,\u201d continued the senators. \u201cIt has been seven months since Secretary Kennedy last testified in front of our Committee\u2026 The time has come for the HELP Committee to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for his actions.\u201d\n\nThe senators called for Chairman Cassidy to schedule an oversight hearing following the disastrous vote by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. This year, RFK Jr. replaced all 17 non-partisan experts on CDC\u2019s top vaccine committee with ideologues who have a history of undermining vaccines.\n\nHickenlooper has been a fierce critic of the admin\u2019s senseless attacks on American science and voted against RFK Jr.\u2019s nomination. Earlier 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.\n\nLast week, he led eight other senators to introduce 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.\n\nFull text of the letter available HERE and below.\n\nDear Chairman Cassidy:\n\nWe write to urge you to schedule an oversight hearing as soon as possible with respect to the actions Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has taken as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to undermine the health and well-being of the American people and people throughout the world.\n\nSince assuming office, Secretary Kennedy has waged an unprecedented war on science and vaccines that have saved millions of lives.\n\nHe has directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to publish false information on its website suggesting that childhood vaccines cause autism despite the findings of more than 40 scientific studies in seven countries involving over 5.6 million people that there is no link between vaccines and autism.\n\nHe has spread misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine during the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. in over 30 years.\n\nHe has removed the Director of the CDC who refused to rubber stamp his dangerous and unsubstantiated vaccine recommendations.\n\nHe has defunded promising vaccine research that will leave us woefully unprepared for future pandemics and public health emergencies.\n\nHe has packed a critical scientific body, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), with vaccine deniers, completely upending the rigorous scientific process for reviewing and recommending vaccines to the public despite a commitment he made to you that ACIP would be \u201cmaintained without changes.\u201d\n\nAs a result of this unacceptable action, ACIP voted 8-3 to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B despite decades of scientific data finding not only that it is safe and effective, but that it has successfully reduced the number of babies and young children infected by this virus from 20,000 a year to fewer than 20.\n\nMr. Chairman: Holding an oversight hearing on Secretary Kennedy\u2019s ill-conceived actions is more important now than ever.\n\nUnder Secretary Kennedy\u2019s leadership, over 1,700 people have been infected with measles. Whooping cough cases are surging nationwide, and concerns about a severe flu season continue to grow. Vaccination rates across the country are falling. Children are dying from illnesses that vaccines could have prevented.\n\nSecretary Kennedy\u2019s response to these crises has been to spread misinformation, end campaigns encouraging flu vaccinations, fire officials who disagree with him, and place individuals with significant conflicts of interest in positions of power\u2014completely undermining Americans\u2019 faith in our nation\u2019s public health institutions.\n\nImportantly, these are not just our concerns.\n\nThe American College of Physicians, representing 162,000 internal medicine physicians, called for Secretary Kennedy\u2019s removal, stating that his actions were \u201csowing chaos and confusion and putting lives at risk.\u201d\n\nDozens of scientific and medical groups, including the Academic Pediatric Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Public Health Association, have called for Secretary Kennedy\u2019s resignation, highlighting their concern \u201cthat American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of policies that turn away from sound interventions.\u201d\n\nMore than 1,000 current and former staff at HHS called on Secretary Kennedy to resign, stating that he \u201ccontinues to endanger the nation\u2019s health.\u201d\n\nIn September, nine former CDC directors appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, called Secretary Kennedy\u2019s actions to severely weaken our nation\u2019s public health programs \u201cunacceptable\u201d which \u201cshould alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.\u201d\n\nIn October, six former surgeons general appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, wrote that they \u201cwere compelled\u201d to \u201cspeak with one voice\u201d in the Washington Post that Secretary Kennedy\u2019s actions \u201care endangering the health of the nation,\u201d stating that \u201cthe profound, immediate and unprecedented threat that Kennedy\u2019s policies and positions pose to the nation\u2019s health cannot be ignored.\u201d\n\nThis month, a dozen former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that that they were \u201cdeeply concerned by sweeping new FDA assertions about vaccine safety and proposals that would undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure that vaccines are safe, effective and available when the public needs them most.\u201d\n\nMr. Chairman: You were right when you recently stated that \u201cACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children.\u201d\n\nYou were also correct when you wrote last month: \u201cWhat parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.\u201d\n\nUnfortunately, Secretary Kennedy is not communicating that important message to the American people. He is doing the exact opposite, and he is endangering the lives of our children and grandchildren in the process.\n\nFailure to conduct an oversight hearing on Secretary Kennedy\u2019s actions would be an abdication of our responsibility\u2014both from a moral perspective and as a matter of sound public health policy.\n\nIn February, you gave a speech on the Senate floor stating that you secured a commitment from Secretary Kennedy that \u201che will come before the HELP Committee on a quarterly basis, if requested.\u201d\n\nIt has been seven months since Secretary Kennedy last testified in front of our Committee. Since Secretary Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate in February, he has come before our Committee just once. In our view, that is unacceptable.\n\nThe time has come for the HELP Committee to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for his actions. It is imperative that Secretary Kennedy come before our Committee to testify as soon as possible.\n\nWe look forward to working with you to make that happen.\n\nSincerely,\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-help-committee-democrats-call-for-secretary-kennedy-to-testify-before-committee/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.2467639539390802, "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"}