''Why Are Our Kids Anxious?': RFK Jr Discusses Social Media's Effect On Young People With Katie Britt Are Our Kids Anxious_'_ RFK Jr Discusses Social Media's Effect On Young People With Katie Britt

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At Tuesday's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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00:00Well thank you very much, Madam Chair. I want to follow up on NIH and that

00:07conversation that you just had. I think every cent of hard-earned taxpayer

00:12dollars should be used responsibly, should be used efficiently, judiciously,

00:17and we have to be accountable. And I appreciate you taking that approach to

00:22every portion of the areas in which you oversee. You mentioned, Senator Mullen

00:29obviously mentioned several of the people that we feel like are not

00:32utilizing this right and are taking advantage of the system. I want to say

00:36thank you for your comments last week at the Help Committee where you

00:39specifically pointed out the University of Alabama and the system, University of

00:43Alabama and Birmingham. You weren't here, I pointed it out again. Well thank you. I appreciate it.

00:47You know, as people trying to do it right, trying to make sure that we can

00:51create life-saving and life-changing research that positively impacts the

00:57lives of not only Alabamians but Americans and people across the globe. And I just

01:01want to thank you for the engagement that we have had on that issue, the

01:04continued dialogue we've had, so that we can work to try to get it right. And so

01:09just wanted your commitment to continuing that conversation as we work to make

01:12sure that we use hard-earned taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently and we

01:16also make sure that we have life-saving and life-changing research that

01:19continues. Yes, Senator. And based upon some of our conversations and

01:23conversations that I've continued to have expressing your concerns, particularly

01:29for the state schools that do not have endowments and that really need lab

01:34support and need gloves and test tubes and mass spectrometers and all of

01:43things that you need to do first-class science, we want to be paying for that.

01:47Good, thank you so much. And we figured out devices in which we can do that but not

01:53through the indirect cost mechanism. Well, thank you so much. I look forward to

01:56continuing that conversation with you. I also want to thank you as a mom. So out

02:01of all of the different secretaries that we voted on and confirmed, I think my

02:06friends were most excited about you because they thought for once they had

02:10someone that was willing to take on, you know, whether it's big companies or big

02:15tech in the name of health for their children. When it comes to social media,

02:20that's something as a mom of a 15 and a 16 year old that I get to see the effects

02:24of firsthand, not just in my own home, but with my friends and things that are

02:28happening in the community. I wanted to talk with you a little bit about that.

02:31We've seen the rate of depression amongst young young people more than

02:34double. We've seen one in three high school young women actually considered

02:38death by suicide. If you look at those same numbers, 25% of those actually made a

02:43plan to take her own life. And then you had 13% of high school young women

02:47actually attempt death by suicide. We saw the Surgeon General come out and say

02:50there needs to be warning labels on social media. People need to know about

02:54the mental health challenges that can occur for from use, persistency and that.

02:59Just want your commitment that you obviously as you take on toxins in the

03:04air, things that are in the environment, things that are in our food, that we'll

03:07also look at the things that are in our children's hands and how we can do better

03:11to put up guard wells to allow them to continue to explore to but to do it in a

03:15safer manner. Yeah, absolutely. And I want to thank you for your support, Senator. I had a conversation with my two of my

03:23grandchildren this weekend and somebody used the word, one of them used the word

03:28anxiety, a five-year-old boy. And I was thinking that I didn't know what that

03:34word was probably until I was a teenager. I never heard anybody use it and but

03:39today it is part of the vernacular in young people. And why is this happening?

03:43Why are our kids anxious and fearful and depressed and suicidal?

03:52Black children in this country, suicide is now the number one cause of death. On the

03:58India reservations, it's now the number one cause of death. And why are we having

04:04this epidemic of loneliness, of alienation and some of it may be social media and

04:11we're looking into that and that's part of our, you know, of our portfolio. But a lot

04:17of it may be coming from our food and we know that the food now, we now understand

04:22that food disrupts microbiome and it causes these mood swings and anxiety and we

04:27need to look at those. Well and I'd love an opportunity to work with you on that and I

04:31know I'm running out of time. We have people that are concerned about Head Start. The news

04:36has, you know, taken a narrative that I believe is untrue. I know that you care

04:42about the most vulnerable children. I know you care about making sure that those

04:45children have access to educational opportunities and care. And could you

04:50just speak directly to those families and providers about what this

04:53administration's plan for supporting and sustaining Head Start in FY26 and how

04:58you're working to provide them with the stability that they need to serve those

05:02vulnerable children as well? I'm very grateful to Russell Flood. I told him how

05:08important Head Start was to me. My uncle, Sarge Shriver, started the program. There's

05:13800,000 of the poorest kids in this country who are served by this program.

05:17It not only teaches the kids, you know, preschool skills, reading, writing and

05:24arithmetic before they get to prepare them for schools, but it also teaches the

05:29parents and teaches them how to be good parents. And we see that the children who

05:36are exposed to those programs have less contact with law enforcement later in

05:41life. They're more likely to graduate from high school and college. They're more

05:46likely to hold down jobs. There's a lot of problems with Head Start. We've kept it

05:50fully funded and I'm very grateful to Russell Flood for that and to the

05:53president. But there's things we need to correct. One is the food that they're

05:58serving at Head Start is terrible. You need to change that. We're poisoning kids

06:03from the poorest kids from their youngest years and we're gonna change that. And

06:08there's other issues too that need to be corrected, but we're gonna have a better

06:11and brighter Head Start by the end of this administration. Well I look forward to

06:16working with you on that. So many other issues and also the wage index issue that is

06:19really hurting Alabama and our rural communities and hospitals. So look

06:23forward to continuing our good work together. Thank you, Senator. Senator Rounds.

06:28Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Secretary, welcome. Senator Rounds. Long day already. Let me go

06:37through a couple of

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