Kat Cammack Asks Sec. RFK Jr. What He’s Doing To Find Migrant Children ‘Lost’ During Biden Admin

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Energy Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) questioned Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on HHS efforts to keep track of migrant children.

Transcript

00:00A gentlelady from Florida, Representative Kamek, for five minutes of questioning.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Secretary Kennedy, for being here.

00:09I know that this has been a bit of an interesting morning, but I do appreciate your commitment to

00:15the initiative to make America healthy again, as well as all the other reforms that you're looking

00:21to initiate. As someone who represents a very large and rural district in Florida and cares

00:28deeply about access to care, especially for our underserved communities, I've seen the good

00:32that HHS can do, but I've also seen where the bureaucracy falls short in helping people,

00:38particularly in rural areas. So I'm encouraged significantly by your willingness and efforts

00:43to restructure the department. Now, I know that there are many broken systems within HHS, and

00:49it's going to take a disruptor. And, sir, you are a disruptor, and that's what we need in

00:54these times, because so many people, especially here in Congress, they want to maintain the

00:58same broken status quo. I think collectively, as Americans, whether you're Republican or Democrat,

01:04we can agree that we have sick care in this country, not health care. And the culture has

01:09been all about maintenance rather than prevention. And so I appreciate all of your efforts in working

01:14to try to address that.

01:16So I'm just going to jump right in. As you know, Secretary Kennedy, under the previous administration

01:22of Joe Biden, maternal health deserts expanded significantly, leaving over 2.5 million women

01:29without access to any sort of maternal health care. In fact, I believe it was one in 25 maternal

01:35health clinics closed under the previous administration. And you've pointed out that there are more than 40

01:41different maternal health programs scattered across HHS. So from where I sit, that sounds

01:46like a lot of bureaucracy. And I want us to focus on patient outcomes and improving those such as

01:53like you do. So walk us through how you're planning on streamlining and making a more coordinated

01:59effort to deliver health care to moms and moms to be around the country.

02:03Yeah, I mean, this is a priority for President Trump. It's a priority for me personally. We have a maternal

02:09health crisis in this country. It disproportionately impacts minorities. Black mothers have a 2.6

02:18times greater chance of dying in childbirth. A black mother with a college education has 2.6 times

02:27greater chance of dying in childbirth than a mother than a white mother with a high school education. So it's

02:34impacting those communities, but it's impacting every American. And we need to protect our

02:39moms, we need to protect our kids, and we need to do a lot better. So, and we intend to do that in

02:45this administration. Well, as someone who is eight weeks out from delivery, I know you can't see it

02:50because I'm so short, but I appreciate that. And I look forward to working with you so we can streamline

02:55these services so moms can get the help and access to resources they need. Changing gears a little bit

03:02here. The DHS inspector general has confirmed for us what so many of us have known for a long time,

03:10that under the Biden-Harris administration, HHS, which is responsible for unaccompanied children,

03:17they lost track of over 340,000 unaccompanied migrant children. They failed to vet sponsors,

03:25and they blocked law enforcement from getting critical information to ensure the safety of

03:31these children. Now, we know several investigative reports, both from government sources and outside,

03:38have reported that these kids were sent to unsafe addresses, even non-existent ones. They were exposed

03:45to trafficking and exploitation, and many of them have not been found to this day. Now, I know you've

03:51had a lot on your plate. It's been a crazy six months, but I know this is a top priority for HHS.

04:00So, like so many other things that you've been tasked with cleaning up, what specific steps is HHS

04:05taking to restore the accountability, improve the sponsor vetting, and ensure that law enforcement can

04:10do its job to protect these children and find these children? I mean, one of the major, the major reason

04:16that the Biden administration lost track of all those children is because they were emphasizing speed

04:23over security, and there were political reasons for that. They wanted to get the kids out of U.S.

04:31custody, so they were handing them off to anybody. It didn't require background tracks. It didn't require

04:37identification, even. I've watched horror stories of the same person picking up child after child after

04:44using different names and different addresses. One of the addresses was a strip club. One of the

04:52addresses was a parking lot. One of the addresses was an empty lot that was filled with shipping

04:57containers, and this character was getting all these kids. One person got 42 kids to one address.

05:06What we're doing now is DNA testing on every sponsor. We're doing personal identification. We're doing

05:12background checks, and we're doing income verification. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you.

05:17My time has expired. The young lady's time has expired. The chair now recognizes.

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