ICYMI: Senator Murray, Former ACIP Member from WA State Raise Alarm Over Purge of Entire CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee
ICYMI: Murray Calls for Kennedy to Reinstate Fired ACIP Members or Delay Meeting Until New Members Appropriately Vetted
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray, a senior member and former chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement regarding the postponement of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) meeting that was scheduled to take place tomorrow. USPSTF is an independent advisory panel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The USPSTF is made up of 16 unpaid, volunteer members serving four-year terms. USPSTF is supported by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) staff, but that agency has lost roughly half of their support staff due to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s mass firings across HHS.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc. on June 27th ruled that USPSTF members are “inferior officers” consistent with the Appointments Clause to the Constitution, therefore affirming their authority to determine coverage of preventive services. The Affordable Care Act Democrats passed gave USPSTF recommendations the force of law for the first time—ensuring that mammograms, colonoscopies, and screenings for depression, osteoporosis, lung cancer, and other recommended preventive care would be covered by insurance at no cost to patients.
“The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is essential to ensuring cancer screenings and other lifesaving preventive services are covered by insurance at no cost to patients—and the abrupt postponement of tomorrow’s task force meeting should set off alarm bells for everyone worried about what our conspiracy-promoting Health Secretary is up to next. I’m concerned Secretary Kennedy may be taking the first steps to dismantle the Preventive Services Task Force and attack its mission and commitment to scientific evidence, just like he has done at the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and across our nation’s public health agencies.
“The Preventive Services Task Force is made up of independent national experts in preventive medicine and primary care—they are volunteers who serve the public interest. In no world should experts be replaced with unqualified anti-science cronies of RFK Jr. who will make preventive health care more expensive and harder to get over baseless conspiracy theories or debunked disinformation.
“I implore every one of my colleagues who believes Americans should be able to get lifesaving preventive care without worrying about cost to speak out now, and to my Republican colleagues: pick up the phone and tell Secretary Kennedy to keep his hands off preventive care.”
Senator Murray forcefully opposed RFK Jr.’s nomination to lead HHS and has been a leading voice in the Senate pushing back against his systematic dismantling of our nation’s premiere public health agency, from the unprecedented mass firing of qualified HHS employees and the closure of critical regional offices, to Secretary Kennedy’s purge of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Last month, Senator Murray called on Secretary Kennedy to reinstate the fired ACIP members and held a press call with Washington state-based Dr. Helen Chu, one of the 17 ACIP members abruptly fired by Secretary Kennedy without cause.
Senator Murray has sent countless oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans’ health and safety and will set our country back decades—and lift up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.
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