To watch the full floor speech, click here.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, voted against the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Yesterday, Blunt Rochester spoke on the floor in opposition to this nomination. You can watch her full floor speech here, and see excerpts below:
“On the eve of the vote for the nominee for the Department of [Health and Human Services], I stand before you, acknowledging that I will vote ‘no’ on the confirmation of Mr. Robert F. Kennedy. I stand before you tonight after looking at his abilities, his background and qualifications, and his character.”
“For me, I listen to my constituents and the calls that we have received into our office. And I’ve read articles, I looked at petitions and lawsuits, listened to podcasts, even watched a video that he produced. There were inconsistencies in his positions. And so that’s one reason that I could say no to this candidate.”
“Even as the former…Deputy Secretary of Health and Social Services from Delaware, I thought about the potential for another pandemic in our country and would he be ready for the job. I thought about the fact that I come from a state that’s also an agriculture state, and we are right now dealing with issues and concerns and fears about avian flu, would he be ready for the job. I thought about senior citizens in my state who are on Medicare and children with special needs who may be on Medicaid, and the fact that in our hearing, and also in my one-on-one conversation with him, he confused the two. Even within a week’s time [he] did not learn the differences between the two. That was concerning enough.”
“But tonight, in the time that I have, I want to also say I stand here as a grandmother and I think about my granddaughter, Lennox, and her ability to, number one, be safe in school because she’s vaccinated, and she is with other children who are vaccinated and no longer have to worry about things like polio. I think about her ability to have reproductive freedom over her own life, when Mr. Kennedy has changed his positions so many times on where he stands on reproductive freedom and the right for her to choose what she wants for her life.”
“But I think one of the most troubling things that, took place during our meeting was that he was not familiar with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, EMTALA, while we literally have a crisis in maternal mortality. It is important to me that the person who holds this job understands those basic things – Medicare, Medicaid, EMTALA, and that we face a challenge for women’s lives being saved.”
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.