Bonamici Invites Fired Federal Maternal Health Policy Analyst to Congressional Address

WASHINGTON, DC [03/03/25] – Today Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) announced that Arielle Kane, a maternal health policy analyst who was fired from her job at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will be her guest for President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Kane grew up in Oregon. As a federal employee she focused on how Medicaid can help improve maternal health outcomes and reduce the country’s high maternal mortality rate. Recently Donald Trump and Elon Musk fired her from her position as part of the purge of dedicated federal workers. She has been outspoken about how the cuts will jeopardize efforts to provide mothers with better care at lower costs.

“Arielle Kane has dedicated her career to improving the health of mothers and babies,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. “It’s appalling that Elon Musk’s team of DOGE bros fired her, halting work designed to save lives. Firing federal workers like Arielle will not make our government more efficient; instead it is blocking work that would save lives of mothers and babies in Oregon and across the country.”

“I’m not here to say everything is perfect in the U.S. health care system, but when you fire the people working on making it better, you aren’t going to fix anything,” said Arielle Kane. “Maternal health outcomes in the U.S. are the worst among high-income countries and gutting the team that’s working to improve outcomes at lower costs won’t make them any better.”

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