Grothman Opens Hearing on Making American Children Healthy Again

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) delivered opening remarks at today’s hearing titled “Better Meals, Fewer Pills: Making Our Children Healthy Again.” In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Grothman highlighted the declining health and growing chronic disease rates in American children due to unhealthy diets and lack of exercise. Subcommittee Chairman Grothman also pointed out that overmedicalization is doing more harm than good to children’s mental and physical health, and that Congress must work to enact policies that reverse these dangerous trends and Make America Healthy Again.

Below are Subcommittee Chairman Grothman’s prepared remarks:

Welcome to the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services. 

Today we will tackle an important topic: the health and well-being of America’s children.

The current state of American children’s health isn’t great, and for years has been trending in the wrong direction.

More than one in five American children over six years old are obese, a 270 percent increase since the 1970s. So when I am asked to speak to a classroom of little children, they are very clearly much heavier than in the 1970s.

American children are being diagnosed with pre-diabetes at more than double the rate over the past two decades. 

Rates of teenage depression have nearly doubled since 2007.

Approximately 3 million high school students have reported suicidal thoughts over the past year. 

A study shows that youth in the U.S. are being prescribed psychotropic drugs at a rate significantly higher than European countries.

Fifteen percent of American boys and eight percent of American girls have been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, and are prescribed daily stimulant pills as treatment.

We are literally giving millions of our children amphetamines and other potent stimulants.

Meanwhile, the modern American childhood bears little resemblance to the childhoods we enjoyed ourselves just a few decades ago. 

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American children spend an average of 7.5 hours per day looking at screens.

Numerous studies have found a link between increasing screen time and anxiety, depression, obesity, sleep problems and more. 

Seventy-seven percent of youth between ages 17-24 would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to obesity or other health conditions.

Children enrolled in Medicaid or their State’s Children Health Insurance Program are more likely to be diagnosed with a behavioral health disorder. These are often children from single-parent households due to the lower-income qualifications for Medicaid.

The number of child psychiatrists in the U.S. has grown over 37% since 2019.

Our children are struggling with their mental and physical health, all while being overmedicalized by a health care system that does not hesitate to prescribe more pills.

On top of that, too many children are not eating the nutrient-dense foods they need for healthy growth and development. 

Foods that provide important nutrients in the diet, such as fruits and vegetables, dairy, and whole and enriched grains should be encouraged.

Instead, children are increasingly being fed ultra-processed foods such as soda, candy, and chips, the makers of which lavish campaign contributions to politicians.

This, in part, is contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic impacting an estimated 14 million children in the U.S. 

The most recent CDC study on weight gain trends over time found that the average weight of Americans has increased 24 pounds since 1960.

So I’m glad that the Trump Administration, through HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins are working hard to bring attention to and solve this crisis. 

On May 22^nd of this year, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released a 78-page report which covered many of these topics.

While this report has been needlessly politicized and demonized by some Democrat politicians and mainstream media pundits, I suspect many have not even read it.

I want to read a small snippet, and I quote:

“The purpose of this report is radical transparency about our current state to spur a conversation about how we can build a world – together – where:

• American farmers are put at the center of how we think about health

• The American healthcare system thrives when disease is prevented and reversed, not just “managed” in a sick-care system.” 

Sounds like common sense to me that will greatly improve the health and happiness of our young people. I’m glad Secretary Kennedy is a disruptive force.

Our constituents know that something is deeply wrong with the status quo when it comes to health.

Last November the voters decisively gave President Trump, and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, a clear mandate to deliver meaningful change and “Make America Healthy Again.”

Congress must also enact policies which will Make America Healthy Again.

I hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can agree that what is happening to our nation’s children is alarming to any objective observer. Our children’s health is not and should not be partisan. 

No matter your party, it should be clear that many American children are suffering.

Something needs to be done to address the health of our youth. 

Today, we will hear directly from two federal experts who are actively working on addressing multifold threats to our children’s health. 

We thank them for appearing at today’s subcommittee hearing and look forward to a productive discussion on this important topic.