Pallone, Wyden Demand the Trump Administration Restore Key Measure of Childhood Health and Well-Being

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., demanded the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) restore the key child immunization measures that it dropped without public comment or stakeholder engagement from the Core Set of Children’s Health Care Quality Measures (the Child Core Set) for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This irresponsible action is particularly concerning considering Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, damaging and unilateral changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

“This decision, communicated to state health officials on December 30, represents a dangerous abdication of the agency’s responsibility to monitor the quality of care provided to nearly half of our nation’s children. The timing and manner of this decision display an egregious lack of transparency,” wrote Pallone and Wyden to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. 

Congress mandated that states report the Child Core Set to ensure that federal dollars go toward high-quality care and drive improvements in child health outcomes. By stripping away one of the most fundamental metrics of preventive health—immunization rates—CMS is effectively blinding itself and the public to the health care needs of tens of millions of children. This action also fails to reflect Secretary Kennedy’s so-called promise of “radical transparency.” 

“This latest action by CMS represents yet another misguided step in Robert Kennedy Jr.’s anti-science crusade to erode vaccine access nationwide, endangering the lives of all Americans, including young children and their families, pregnant women, older adults, and people with disabilities,” the lawmakers concluded. 

CMS did not provide a scientific and medical reason for replacing reliable, evidence-based measures of disease protection with ambiguous process measures about "alternative schedules,” which contradict recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This decision comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recklessly watered down childhood vaccine recommendations, including for influenza, hepatitis A, meningococcal diseases, among other serious illnesses. 

To hold the Trump administration and Secretary Kennedy accountable for their misguided anti-science crusade against vaccines, Pallone and Wyden asked CMS about what evidence it used to determine that vaccination rates are no longer a core measure of child health quality, whether legal reasons exist for modifying these preventative care standards, and whether CMS intends to measure or monitor childhood immunization rates among children with Medicaid and CHIP coverage. 

Pallone and Wyden have served as congressional leaders in protecting the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans. In December 2025, Pallone and Wyden released a report blasting Republicans’ rushed Big Ugly Bill for destabilizing U.S. health care by slashing more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA). In September 2025, Pallone and Wyden introduced legislation that would protect free vaccines.  

The letter text is available here.

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