RFK Jr.<\/a>, along with unchecked billionaire Elon Musk, have followed through on their threats to destroy the agencies that protect our health. As part of their drastic and haphazard purge and reorganization at HHS, they have eliminated entire agencies. Among them are institutions that have saved the lives of someone near to each and every one of us.<\/p>\n\n\tThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which operates the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline \u2014 eliminated.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which is responsible for ensuring access to health care for uninsured, isolated, and vulnerable people, like HIV\/AIDS patients, mothers and children, and families in rural communities \u2014\u00a0eliminated.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which helps us respond to and prepare for public health emergencies \u2014 eliminated.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd even the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the driving force behind programs like Meals on Wheels that curtail senior hunger and isolation \u2014 eliminated.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\tI do not believe the American people want less health research, more infectious disease outbreaks, and cuts to Medicaid. The president took time in his first address to Congress to recognize a young boy battling brain cancer. But now, the White House and Republicans are taking resources away from people fighting cancer and diseases of all kinds.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe administration has fired or pushed out thousands of experts and experienced staff who help keep Americans safe from infectious diseases, including Measles, HIV, and tuberculosis.<\/p>\n
\n\tTake the example of Peter Marks, the country\u2019s top vaccine regulator at the Food & Drug Administration, who helped develop the Covid vaccines at record speed under the first Trump administration. This effort helped prevent over three million additional deaths according to a study from the Commonwealth Fund. None of that mattered, because Marks was told to resign or be fired. In his resignation letter, Marks wrote that, quote, \u201cit has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where DOGE has already fired or pushed out 2,400 employees, Kennedy has eviscerated the offices that track the most urgent and alarming threats to public health, from HIV to cancer. These offices collected data that allowed everyone from community physicians to parents to make informed decisions about their families\u2019 health. Without this data, our public health experts will have a harder time identifying trends and prioritizing resources in our communities.<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tHHS has terminated $11 billion in funding for state and local health departments, and DOGE is demanding CDC slash nearly $3 billion in grant funding, illegally cutting CDC\u2019s annual discretionary funding by over 30 percent. They are eliminating scores of CDC programs, including HIV prevention and tobacco prevention programs \u2014 programs that help save the lives of men, women, and children all across this country.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy on Earth are these the places DOGE is searching for so-called waste? The life of a teenager that does not become addicted to cigarettes is not a waste.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the National Institutes of Health, Kennedy has fired more than 2,000 employees, including several Directors of NIH\u2019s individual institutes. The administration has withheld federal funding from universities that do not adopt their preferred policies, cancelled research on topics they do not like, put tight restraints on NIH grants, and illegally impounded funding appropriated by Congress. The Administration has even terminated research funding for mRNA vaccines \u2014 one of the most promising innovations in medical research.<\/p>\n
\n\tThere are a few glimmers of hope, and we are now seeing pushback at every level. The public is outraged at the enormous harm this effort has wrought. Dozens of courts have put restraining orders on the Administration\u2019s actions. But courts can only play defense.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, I will continue to lead the fight against this shortsighted, dangerous plan. Congress is an institution that responds to external pressure, and we need to bring the pressure from Americans everywhere if we are going to protect ourselves from this lawless and reckless Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\n\tI want to close with an example that hits close to home for me and for millions of American families. In my district, scores of research programs at Yale University\u2019s graduate programs are funded by NIH grants. One PhD student at Yale, whose passion for science was inspired by their stepmother\u2019s melanoma diagnosis, was awarded the NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Grant, which they are using to explore mechanisms of cancer metastasis.<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\tThis student told my office, \u201cThe scientists I know \u2026 are terrified that the essential research and development done by academia will be slowed or stopped, hindering the development of life-saving therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tI am a cancer survivor. I am alive due to the gift of science and biomedical research. One way or another, cancer touches the lives of almost every single American family. Imagine what will happen to those families now, with these agencies obliterated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rosa DeLauro represents Connecticut\u2019s 3rd District in the House of Representatives. She is the ranking Democrat on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[22657,17287,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-52720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-rfk-jr","9":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114405590142795462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}