Congressional Democrats urge Trump to undo order on childhood vaccines
Democrats in both chambers are calling on Trump to rescind his executive order that aims to reduce the number of universally recommended vaccines for children and separate the MMR vaccine into individual shots.
In a letter shared first with NBC News, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., were joined by 22 other Democrats in the Senate and 67 in the House, led by Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., to say that Trump's order from earlier this month “overrides decades of scientific evidence and sows fear, chaos, and confusion.”
The letter was sent last night.
The stakes are particularly high, the lawmakers wrote, as measles cases in the U.S. this year are already higher than the annual totals recorded in any of the last 35 years.
“The result will not be safer or healthier children; it will be a continued decline in vaccination rates, recurring disease outbreaks, higher healthcare costs, and school disruptions that cause learning loss,” they wrote.
The lawmakers called the order part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, a move they said “defies medical evidence and places additional burdens on families.”
Kennedy this month said the order is meant to give parents more choices. Democrats, in today's letter, said each day the order remains in effect “more children go without the vaccines that would protect them, additional outbreaks become more likely, and lives are put at risk.”
Criticism of the order has extended beyond just Democrats — Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote on X that the order is “wrong” and the president “does not have the expertise to make these changes.”
Cassidy, a physician, was a key vote in installing Kennedy as health secretary. Since his confirmation, Cassidy and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly spoken out against Kennedy’s vaccine agenda.
The Democratic lawmakers did not ask Cassidy or any other Republicans to sign onto the letter.