[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 374 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 374
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Secretary of Health and Human
Services Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. does not have the confidence of
the Senate or of the American people to faithfully carry out the duties
of his office and should be removed from his position.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 4, 2025
Ms. Alsobrooks (for herself, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Sanders, Mrs.
Murray, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms.
Duckworth, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Kim, Mr. Markey, Mr. Padilla,
Mr. Reed, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Smith, Ms. Warren, Mr. Warner, Mr. Warnock,
Mr. Welch, Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Coons) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Secretary of Health and Human
Services Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. does not have the confidence of
the Senate or of the American people to faithfully carry out the duties
of his office and should be removed from his position.
Whereas, while serving as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred
to in this preamble as the ``Secretary''), Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy
Jr., in violation of his constitutional oath, has engaged in a pattern
of conduct that is incompatible with his constitutional and statutory
duties as the Secretary, including by--
(1) furthering his anti-science and anti-vaccine agenda by targeting,
firing, and pushing out scientists and experts to install and empower
unqualified anti-vaccine associates throughout the Department of Health and
Human Services (referred to in this preamble as the ``Department''),
specifically at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in order to promote policies
that undermine access and trust in vaccines;
(2) failing to meet his obligations under section 1701 of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300u), including the obligation to support
``research and demonstrations respecting health information and health
promotion, preventive health services, and education in the appropriate use
of health care'' and to increase ``the application and use of health
knowledge, skills, and practices by the general population in its patterns
of daily living'';
(3) failing to meet his obligations under sections 402 and 464z-3 of
the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 282; 285t), wherein it is clear
that the congressional intent of National Institutes of Health research is
to support programs for research, research training, and recruitment that
``provide for an increase in the number of women and individuals from
disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities) in the
fields of biomedical and behavioral research'' and to support research and
training ``with respect to minority health conditions and other populations
with health disparities'';
(4) failing to meet his obligations under the many statutes that govern
the programs of the Department and appropriate funding for the Department
to administer such programs, in violation of Federal law and the
Constitution of the United States, through his directed reduction in force
and reorganization of Department functions, which was initiated with little
regard to the impact of the reductions on congressionally mandated
activities, the efficacy of government programs and services, or the very
legality of the reductions; and
(5) failing to meet his obligations under the Older Americans Act of
1965 (42 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.), the Developmental Disabilities Assistance
and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15001 et seq.), and the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 701 et seq.), which together entrust
the Secretary with ensuring both older Americans and individuals with
disabilities are afforded the inherent dignity they are entitled to,
including living where they choose with the ability to fully participate in
their communities;
Whereas, under the direction of political leadership, the National Institutes of
Health has sent hundreds of letters to Federal grant recipients at
public research institutions announcing that various grants have been
terminated because they ``no longer effectuate agency priorities'',
resulting in delays and terminations that have caused direct, immediate,
significant, and irreparable harm to the States and to public research
institutions;
Whereas, on March 24, 2025, the Department abruptly and arbitrarily terminated
$11,000,000,000 of critical public health funding from States across the
country, jeopardizing disease surveillance programs, substance abuse
services, emergency preparedness initiatives, and funding to modernize
State programs for childhood immunization and access to vaccinations,
causing serious harm to public health and leaving States at risk for
pandemics and the spread of disease;
Whereas these terminations exceeded the Secretary's statutory authority and are
unlawful under subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5,
United States Code (commonly known as the ``Administrative Procedure
Act'');
Whereas, in late February of 2025, the Secretary and the Director of the
National Institutes of Health launched a ``reckless and illegal purge''
of hundreds of research projects because they allegedly had ``some
alleged connection to `gender identity' or diversity, equity, and
inclusion'', when in reality, this new mandate was used as a guise to
cut research from diverse researchers, diverse populations, or research
related to health disparities;
Whereas, according to court filings, this research included grants for
Alzheimer's research, research on disparities in pregnancy health,
violence prevention among children, and the efficacy of preventative HIV
medications, and as a result of these actions, ``scientific advancements
will be delayed, treatments will go undiscovered, human health with be
compromised, and lives will be lost'';
Whereas 2 days after being sworn in as the Secretary, 5,200 probationary workers
across multiple agencies of the Department received termination notices,
in which these workers were told that they were ``not fit for continued
employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the
Agency's current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to
justify further employment at the Agency'';
Whereas, on March 27, 2025, the Secretary announced that the Department would
begin to terminate an additional 10,000 employees as part of a broader
effort to push 20,000 Federal civil servants out of Federal health
agencies and consolidate divisions;
Whereas, on April 1, 2025, the termination notices began, with consequences that
were, according to litigation, ``severe, complicated, and potentially
irreversible'';
Whereas, on April 1, 2025, most of the staff from the 8 Offices of Minority
Health across the Department were eliminated at the Secretary's
direction as part of a Department-wide reorganization, including the
entire Office of Minority Health at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services;
Whereas sections 1707 and 1707A of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
300u-6; 300u-6a) mandate the existence of these offices and section
10334(b)(3) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C.
300u-6a note; Public Law 111-148) specifically prohibits the termination
or reorganization of these offices absent an Act of Congress;
Whereas the Secretary has undertaken mass firings at the Administration for
Children and Families, reducing the agency's staffing footprint by 35 to
40 percent, that endanger children and seniors and undermine the
provision of essential services like child care, Head Start, adoption
and foster care, and adult and child protective services;
Whereas the Secretary has initiated steps to reorganize the Administration for
Community Living, terminating half of the staff at the Department that
work on Federal aging and disability programs and causing real harm to
programs that support more than 11,000,000 seniors and 70,000,000
Americans with disabilities;
Whereas staff at numerous Freedom of Information Act offices at the Department
have been eliminated, eroding the American people's ability to
instrumentalize their right to government transparency and
accountability;
Whereas 23 States have initiated numerous lawsuits against both Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. in his official capacity as the Secretary of Health and
Human Services and the Department of Health and Human Services,
underscoring the illegality of the Secretary's actions, and the ways in
which both the Secretary and the Department are undermining public
health;
Whereas leading health research organizations and individual researchers have
filed a lawsuit against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his official capacity
as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for breaching his
statutory authority under subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of
title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the ``Administrative
Procedure Act'') by acting contrary to congressional mandates requiring
the National Institutes of Health to promote health equity and address
health disparities;
Whereas 20 States filed a lawsuit against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his official
capacity as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for his arbitrary
and capricious directive to conduct an abrupt reduction in force and
reorganization of the Department, which violates the Appropriations
Clause of section 9 of article I of the Constitution of the United
States and the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers;
Whereas the Secretary's illegal termination of National Institutes of Health
research grants and the subsequent termination of Federal employees
working at Federal health agencies, as well as the elimination of a
number of Centers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Institutes of the National Institutes of Health will undermine efforts
to combat chronic disease;
Whereas the Secretary eliminated staff at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke, the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and
Tuberculosis Prevention, the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, the National Center for Environmental Health, and the
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, among
others;
Whereas these actions will stifle efforts to research, prevent, and treat
Americans living with Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma,
blood disorders, and many other chronic conditions;
Whereas the Secretary himself admitted that these reductions in force were
flawed and mismanaged, leading him to rehire some staff that were
mistakenly fired, but still leaving many programs and agencies across
the Department crippled by the cuts;
Whereas under the direction of the Secretary, the NIH Clinical Center has paused
or delayed funding for months to hundreds of clinical trials, and
outright terminated hundreds more, and many of the terminated trials
focused on testing vaccines, combatting HIV and HPV, harm reduction
strategies to reduce SUDs, and violence and sexual assault prevention,
and others focused on diabetes, kidney transplants, brain health, sickle
cell treatments, and cochlear implants, and will thus have wide ranging
health implications for Americans;
Whereas, in March 2025, the Department rescinded a memo, referred to as the
``Richardson Waiver,'' wherein the Department agreed to follow the
notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures in the Administrative Procedure
Act, thereby breaking with more than 5 decades of precedent that allowed
members of the public and external experts to make their voices heard
through public comments on everything from proposed rules, grants,
loans, and contracts to the structure of the agency itself, and this
action is in direct contradiction to the Secretary's stated commitment
to lead the Department through ``radical transparency,'' and enables the
Department to take actions without public oversight, but the Government
Accountability Office found that this action is a rule that should have
been submitted into the Congressional record, and is thus subject to a
challenge under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code (commonly known
as the ``Congressional Review Act'');
Whereas the Secretary has been a key instigator and supporter of a health care
agenda that will have devastating impacts for Americans, including under
Public Law 119-21, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated that
this law alone will cut $1,000,000,000,000 from the United States health
care system, and cause more than 15,000,000 Americans to lose their
health insurance coverage. Experts also predict this law will cause more
than 51,000 preventable deaths, put more than 570 nursing homes at
immediate risk of closure, and put more than 330 rural hospitals and
1,800 community health center sites across the country at immediate risk
of reducing services, converting to a different type of facility, or
closing altogether;
Whereas it was reported that in order to secure support for his nomination from
certain Republican Senators, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. committed that, as
Secretary, he would maintain the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices, the critical vaccine panel that advises the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines to control disease
in the United States;
Whereas immediately after making that promise, the Secretary went back on his
word, abruptly cancelling the February meeting of the Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practices (referred to in this preamble as ``ACIP''),
and suggesting that he was preparing to remove experts from the
committee;
Whereas the Secretary continued to breed distrust in American scientific
institutions by saying in his Senate testimony and maiden speech as
Secretary, ``we will remove conflicts of interest from the committees
and research partners,'' alleging without evidence that Federal vaccine
advisers are not acting in the best interest of public health and
safety;
Whereas, in his first speech as Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to
investigate the scientifically supported childhood vaccine schedule,
saying, ``nothing is going to be off limits'';
Whereas, in June 2025, the Secretary took unprecedented steps to unceremoniously
fire all 17 members of ACIP without cause, replacing them with 8
handpicked members, some of whom are vaccine skeptics and have conflicts
of interest, including 1 who served as an expert witness against the
human papillomavirus vaccine;
Whereas just 2 weeks after the Secretary replaced all of the ACIP's members, the
newly comprised ACIP announced that it will revisit the childhood
vaccine schedule, putting access to vaccines that children have received
for decades, such as hepatitis B, pertussis, and polio, in danger;
Whereas the Secretary's new ACIP panel showcased an unscientific presentation
from Lyn Redwood, a leader in the anti-vaccine movement and the
President Emerita of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine
organization the Secretary co-founded before his time in office, and
following Redwood's presentation, the new ACIP appointees voted 5-1
recommending against use of multi-dose flu vaccine containing
thimerosal;
Whereas the Secretary subsequently pushed out esteemed career civil servants,
including Dr. Peter Marks, the Director of the Center for Biologics
Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, the
regulator responsible for ensuring the safety and effectiveness of
vaccinations;
Whereas, in his resignation letter, Dr. Marks cast a light on the Secretary's
political interference and misinformation that was undermining the work
of the Food and Drug Administration, stating, ``it has become clear that
truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he
wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies'';
Whereas, in his answers to questions for the record following his nomination
hearing before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
of the Senate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote, ``I will do nothing as HHS
Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking
vaccines but instead seek transparency in these products'';
Whereas the Secretary has instead used his position to continue to discredit the
science behind vaccines, stoke fear about the efficacy and safety of
vaccines, and dismantle vaccine approval and education programs;
Whereas the National Institutes of Health halted funding for at least 40
research grants for projects studying vaccine hesitancy and paths to
overcome it;
Whereas the National Institutes of Health cancelled funding for studies seeking
new vaccines and treatments for both COVID-19 and other pathogens that
may cause future pandemics, requested project lists regarding mRNA
vaccines, the technology at the center of COVID-19 vaccinations, and
urged scientists to remove references to such technology from their
grant applications;
Whereas, after the Food and Drug Administration delayed granting a license to a
COVID-19 vaccine in April 2025, the Secretary falsely declared that
``for respiratory illnesses, the single antigen vaccines have never
worked'';
Whereas, in August 2025, the Department cancelled 22 mRNA vaccine development
projects, as part of the Secretary's broader anti-vaccine crusade and
fixation on mRNA technology, with the Secretary falsely suggesting that
mRNA vaccines are unsafe and ineffective;
Whereas, in May 2025, in a departure from the typical process and without input
from ACIP, the Secretary announced that the Department removed COVID-19
vaccines from the list of shots recommended for healthy pregnant women
and children, making it harder for pregnant women and children to access
the COVID-19 vaccine, and months later, the Food and Drug Administration
approved the latest COVID vaccines with new restrictions for use,
further erecting barriers to access to the vaccine for Americans across
the Nation;
Whereas, through the Secretary's reduction in force and reorganization efforts,
the Department has eliminated entirely or reduced the functionality of
the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Division
of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases;
Whereas, during the Secretary's first week on the job, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention announced that it was stopping a flu vaccination
advertising campaign during the height of flu season;
Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a multi-
State measles outbreak impacting communities with low measles
vaccination coverage has been raging during the Secretary's tenure, with
the number of reported cases in 2025 surpassing the number of cases when
the disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000,
largely due to the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (referred to in
this preamble as the ``MMR vaccine'') being 97 percent effective in
preventing measles, and the most cases in more than 3 decades, and 96
percent of patients during this outbreak have been unvaccinated or have
unknown vaccination status;
Whereas instead of vocal support for the MMR vaccine, the Secretary has uplifted
untested treatments like cod liver supplements, vitamin A treatments,
the antibiotic clarithromycin, or the asthma steroid budensonide and
directed Federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for
measles, including vitamin A treatments;
Whereas vaccine safety experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
and the American Academy of Pediatrics have found no conclusive link
between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative,
yet the Secretary has used inconsistent and often contradictory
messaging around the MMR vaccine, questioning the MMR vaccine's safety
by incorrectly declaring, ``we don't know the risks of many of these
products because they're not safety tested,'' ignoring the decades of
scientific research behind the vaccine proving that the vaccine is safe,
and routinely misrepresenting the potential for adverse events from the
vaccine, sowing fear in the public about vaccine use;
Whereas the outbreak has resulted in hundreds of hospitalizations and 3 deaths,
including 2 unvaccinated school-aged children with no known underlying
medical condition. Yet the Secretary has downplayed the deaths
associated with the measles outbreak, saying that more attention should
be paid towards chronic diseases like diabetes and autism, while at the
same time falsely claiming that there may be a relationship between the
MMR vaccine and autism;
Whereas, on April 30, 2025, the Secretary made the false claim that the MMR
vaccine contains ``aborted fetus debris'', further perpetuating fears
and stigma about the vaccine;
Whereas this is only the latest in a series of mistruths regarding the MMR
vaccine that the Secretary has used his bully pulpit and position of
leadership as the Secretary to promote;
Whereas, in his answers to questions for the record following his nomination
hearing before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
of the Senate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote, ``addressing maternal
mortality, and its underlying causes, will be a priority in my
leadership of HHS'', yet as the Secretary, he has decimated Department
divisions and offices responsible for protecting the health of women and
their babies;
Whereas the Secretary's illegal reorganization and unlawful mass firings at the
Department have devastated the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's Assisted Reproductive Technologies office (which focuses on
infertility and in vitro fertilization research), Division of
Reproductive Health, Women's Health and Fertility branch, and Office of
Women's Health, and the Health Resources and Services Administration's
Maternal and Child Health Bureau;
Whereas the Secretary has made a series of offensive and scientifically
unfounded statements about autism, perpetuating harmful stereotypes,
disregarding decades of scientific research and consensus, threatening
public trust in lifesaving immunization programs, undermining the
dignity of individuals with autism, and denying individuals with
disabilities the services they are entitled to;
Whereas, in April 2025, the Secretary made crude, misleading, and ableist
comments about individuals on the autism spectrum, offensively and
incorrectly stating that they, ``will never pay taxes, they'll never
hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem,
they'll never go on a date'';
Whereas reports have surfaced that the Secretary has directed the National
Institutes of Health to launch an ``autism registry'' to track Americans
with the disability, likely in violation of Federal privacy laws;
Whereas the Secretary hired Andrew Downing, who has made a career out of vaccine
injury lawsuits, including receiving financial compensation through
litigation against the human papillomavirus vaccine, to begin
``revolutionizing the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program'', and the
Secretary also awarded Downing's law firm a $250,000 contract to support
this effort, upending the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program could
severely curb vaccine access across the Nation;
Whereas the Secretary has hired discredited vaccine skeptic David Geier as a
data analyst to examine the long-debunked and harmful theory that links
vaccines to autism, continuing to distort the public understanding of
autism;
Whereas, during his confirmation hearing before the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, Senator Hassan summarized
the danger of Robert F. Kennedy's words and actions best: ``The problem
with this witness' response on the autism cause, and the relationship to
vaccines, is because he is re-litigating and churning settled science,
so we cannot go forward and find out what the cause of autism is, and
treat these kids, and help these families'';
Whereas leading national autism organizations released a joint statement in
April 2025, on the importance of upholding scientific integrity with
evidence-based research and investments in diverse supports for the
autism community, rejecting Robert F. Kennedy's rhetoric that ``autism
is preventable'', his framing of autism as a ``chronic disease'',
``childhood disease'', or ``epidemic'', and his perpetuation of the myth
that vaccines cause autism;
Whereas, on August 27, 2025, the White House and Secretary Kennedy fired Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Susan Monarez, just 30
days after her Senate confirmation, after the Director ``refused to
rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health
experts'', and according to reporting, the Secretary was insisting that
the Director approve all new recommendations from his hand-picked ACIP
panel, regardless of the science behind the decisions;
Whereas, in the same week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Director was fired, 4 high-level leaders and scientists at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention submitted their resignations because
of the chaos caused by the Secretary, including Director of the National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Demetre
Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic
Infectious Diseases, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Debra Houry;
Whereas Dr. Daskalakis wrote in his scathing resignation letter that he is
``unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to
generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality
and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health'';
Whereas these are just the latest in a series of high-profile leaders,
scientists, and subject matter experts to be either directly pushed out
by the Secretary or forced to leave due to the toxic, chaotic, and
untenable environment created by the Secretary within the Department,
and his politicization of science;
Whereas, in August 2025, more than 750 Federal health employees, including
hundreds of current Department staff wrote to Kennedy imploring him to
``stop spreading inaccurate health information'' and accusing him of
``sowing public mistrust by questioning the integrity and morality of
CDC's workforce'', they suggested that Kennedy's actions have worsened
Americans' health and safety and are, at least in part, responsible for
the recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
Whereas, in less than a year in his role as the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has demonstrated a pattern of deception,
perpetuating erroneous and even dangerous statements that have eroded
public trust in the Department, Federal health agencies, and scientific
research;
Whereas a report by the Senate Finance Committee found that the Secretary has
directly taken, directed, or enabled hundreds of actions over the course
of every day of his tenure that put Americans' health at risk, by
decimating and threatening the critical staff and programs at the
Department, destabilizing gold-standard research, and weaponizing
advisory panels and systems to undermine trust in and access to
vaccines;
Whereas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been negligent towards his statutory duty to
provide for and enhance the health and well-being of all Americans,
taking actions that have dismantled the public health system, defying
the many statutes that govern the Department's programs and appropriate
funding for the Department to administer such programs, and
intentionally undercutting the will of Congress;
Whereas Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regularly disregards the rule of law and co-opts
the Office of the Secretary, using the Department and its resources as a
means of personal gain for his agenda, and the financial gain of his
family, his associates, and former organization; and
Whereas the role of the Secretary of Health and Human Services is to be a
trusted leader and an authority on science and evidence-based health
policies for the American public: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that Secretary Robert
Francis Kennedy Jr. no longer holds the confidence of the Senate or of
the American people to faithfully carry out his duties as Secretary of
Health and Human Services, and thus should be removed from office.
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