WASHINGTON – Today during the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump administration, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed with him the need to locate the unaccompanied migrant children who were lost in the interior U.S. under Joe Biden, improve Americans’ access to mental and behavioral health services, and strengthen the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program after its success in the first Trump administration. Excerpts are below, and video can be found here.

On Locating Unaccompanied Migrant Children Lost by the Biden Administration:

CORNYN: “There were roughly 500,000 children—unaccompanied minors—that were placed with sponsors in the interior of the United States. The previous administration took the position that it was not the federal government’s responsibility once these children were placed with these sponsors.”

“I look forward to working with you to find those children and to make sure that they’re not being abused.”

KENNEDY: “Many of them we know have been sex trafficked, and childhood slavery, and it is a plight on America’s moral authority, and we need to find those kids.”

On Improving Access to Mental and Behavioral Health Services:

CORNYN: “Millions of Americans are experiencing mild to moderate mental health and substance abuse issues, yet many struggle with timely and effective access.”

“Primary care physicians are most likely to be seeing these individuals as opposed to a specialist, and it makes it important that these individuals, primary care physicians, be trained in patient-centered care, which would strengthen the integration of behavioral health care with primary care services. Is this something that you are concerned about, something you’d be willing to work with us on in order to implement?”

KENNEDY: “This is a priority for me.”

“I was a heroin addict for 14 years. I’m in 42 years in recovery… I hear the many stories about denial or the barriers to access to care, and we need to improve that.”

On Strengthening PEPFAR:

CORNYN: “Under the first Trump administration, the number of people receiving HIV treatment in Africa through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, otherwise known as PEPFAR, it increased.”

“Failure to continue this program, in my view, would risk ceding that leadership to adversaries like China… Would you work with me and my colleagues to make sure that this program continues to provide lifesaving antiviral drugs to people who are most in need?”

KENNEDY: “I absolutely support PEPFAR, and I will happily work with you to strengthen the program.”