Aderholt Remarks at FY25 Budget Hearing of the Secretary of HHS (As Prepared)

Good Morning, Mr. Secretary. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for our first budget hearing of the year. We are looking forward to hearing your testimony.

I know the discussion this morning will focus on the facts and figures related to funding for public health, biomedical research, and services for children and families. Those are all important issues, but I want to also raise another important, but difficult topic today. That is the issue of human trafficking.

Tragically, human trafficking is not limited to a few isolated places in border towns or big cities. In my home region of North Alabama, parts of my district have seen nearly a 200 percent increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children placed with sponsors over the past few years.

Unfortunately, I’ve learned that across the country, only a small percentage of these placements involved an objective, professional home study in advance to determine whether or not the placement is safe for the minors.

The shocking truth is, many of these unaccompanied children are the victims of trafficking, whether through their initial smuggling into our country or through placement with corrupt sponsors after their arrival due to lack of proper due diligence from HHS.

This Subcommittee has been made aware of instances of these minors being placed illegally in dangerous jobs, such as cleaning floors in meat-packing facilities and working in unsanitary and dangerous conditions in factories or on farms.

Mr. Secretary, it is your department that is responsible for making sure these children are not exploited or enslaved and are placed in safe care until their cases can be heard by a judge.

Yet, I understand from recent news reports that HHS rushes through background checks and other procedures designed to vet sponsors in order to move children quickly out of shelters and off your department’s rolls. I have read that your agency has lost contact with a third of all unaccompanied minors within a month after placing them with sponsors. I will be asking some tough questions about that this morning.

We have an unprecedented national security crisis at our border. Americans deserve a secure border, and these children deserve to be protected from exploitation and trafficking. I fear that young people in already vulnerable situations are being deceived into coming to our country illegally with the promise of jobs and security – only to find themselves abused and enslaved within our own borders. It is indefensible and your Department must do better.

Mr. Secretary, I was disappointed to see that your budget proposal for the next fiscal year continues out-of-control government spending, which only adds to our already-high inflation rates.

Inflation is a burden on every American, and it hurts those at the margins of our society the hardest. The creation of new mandatory programs such as your proposal for vaccines for adults seems to be an example of more unnecessary spending that will only add to our budget deficit.

This morning, I also hope to discuss the many management challenges facing you at the helm of HHS -from the continuing problems with recouping improper payments in the provider relief fund, to overseeing a public health agency that has almost totally lost the public’s trust - there are many areas in your agency in need of some improvement. I hope to learn more this morning about what you are doing to take positive steps in these areas.

Finally, there are also many external threats facing your department. There are threats to cybersecurity, such as we recently saw with the Choice Health data breach, threats from antibiotic resistance, and the ongoing and growing health burden of chronic diseases. I look forward to hearing your ideas to combat these this morning as well.

As a reminder to the subcommittee and our witness, we will abide by the 5-minute rule so that everyone will have a chance to get their questions asked and answered.

Before we begin, I would like to yield the floor to our Ranking Member, the Gentlelady from Connecticut, for her opening statement.