Marjorie Taylor Greene And Melanie Stansbury Clash During Hearing On The FDA

4/9/2025

At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) clashed during a hearing about the FDA.

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Transcript

00:00Chair now recognizes Ms. Tinsbury from New Mexico.

00:06Thank you Mr. Chairman. I just want to ask a quick question.

00:10This is the oversight committee, correct?

00:13That's right. We're in the oversight committee.

00:16So I have to say I found this to be a very bizarre committee hearing

00:20because here we are in oversight and our job is to conduct oversight

00:25over the administration because of the separation of powers between

00:29Congress and the executive branch and right now the administration

00:34is dismantling the Food and Drug Administration and we are sitting here

00:39and members on both sides of the aisle are asking questions of industry

00:44funded groups about how the FDA is going to protect public health

00:50from medicines and food while the secretary is firing thousands of

00:56FDA employees. In fact just this last week they announced they were firing

01:003,500 members of FDA and RFK Jr. announced that he was going to fire

01:0710,000 HHS employees across the entire agency.

01:11So my question is if this is the oversight committee why are we not

01:15conducting oversight over the administration and their mass firings

01:19and the actual deconstruction of the exact agency that's supposed to

01:24protect the public health. That is what we should be doing right now

01:28in this hearing room. So I find it very bizarre that many of my friends

01:33across the aisle are asking you know how these folks are going to protect

01:38the public health because they're not because they're dismantling and

01:41taking out the top experts who do this work. Now some of my colleagues have

01:45already pointed out that one of the top vaccinologists not just in the United

01:50States but in the world Dr. Peter Marks was forced to resign and in a few

01:56moments I'm going to enter his resignation letter into the record

02:00because it's instructive in his resignation. He says that for the last

02:0513 years he's tried to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the science

02:10and the public health and he says it at the end of his letter, however,

02:15it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the

02:20secretary but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his

02:24misinformation and lies. I have been trying to figure out for the last couple

02:31of weeks what exactly the end goal is inside of HHS. What exactly the end goal is

02:38inside of FDA. What exactly the GOP's theory of Maha of make America healthy

02:45again is because today you want to take a vote on dismantling Medicaid. Your

02:51president is mass firing thousands of public health officials including the

02:56people who make our drugs, our medications, our food, our cosmetic safety. Your

03:02president is announced yesterday that he wants to put tariffs on farm

03:07pharmaceuticals and you're going after Social Security and Medicaid by

03:13dismantling the offices and the services and programs through Doge that

03:17actually serve the people of this country. So I don't understand it. I don't

03:22understand how this serves the public interest. Dr. Kessler, I am very grateful

03:27that you are here today. You are a legend. You are so well known across the public

03:32health space. And I know you're not currently serving in this

03:36administration. But help us understand the scope and the scale and why the

03:44American people need to be paying attention to what's happening inside the

03:47agency right now.

03:50Dr. Kessler, 20 cents of every consumer dollar is spent on a product that FDA

03:59oversees. All our foods essentially, except meat and poultry, USDA does that. All our

04:09drugs, oral cosmetics, our blood supply, our medical devices, our radiological, many of our

04:18radiological devices. The agency is absolutely essential for the safety of the American family.

04:32It's also absolutely key for our competitiveness. I am concerned that China is going to beat us

04:47scientifically, you know, if we're not careful with all these cuts that are going on.

04:53But the reason I'm concerned about that, it's not about China. It's about the health of us.

04:59And Dr. Kessler, I just, I want to end with this note.

05:03As Vera Rosenthal was leaving the department after being fired by the Secretary, she said,

05:14people are going to die from these cuts. I am not being an alarmist. The day after they announced

05:20these mass firings and cuts, pharmaceutical prices tanked on the market. And that was before tariffs.

05:26And that's because the ability to get life saving drugs to market, the ability to save American lives,

05:34the ability to get... The gentlelady's time has expired.

05:36The gentlelady's time has expired.

05:38The gentlelady's time has expired.

05:40The gentlelady's time has expired. I now recognize Mr. Higgins from Louisiana.

05:46The gentlelady's time has expired.

05:50The gentlelady's time has expired.

05:52But the American people need to understand what is happening inside this agency and the risk to the public health.

06:00No, you're lying to the American people.

06:02I'm sorry, madam.

06:04You are lying to the American people.

06:06The American people need to understand their health is at risk and this is a 5th alarm emergency.

06:10Mr. Higgins is now recognized. Mr. Higgins from Louisiana is now recognized.

06:14Mr. Higgins on metric.

Marjorie Taylor Greene And Melanie Stansbury Clash During Hearing On The FDA

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