Washington, D.C. — Georgia’s Democratic Congressional Delegation is demanding answers on the latest CDC firings.
U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is leading Georgia’s Democratic Congressional Delegation in calling on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to answer for the chaos and disruption at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that has marked his tenure, including the recent firings — and re-hirings — of CDC employees.
Earlier this month, 1,760 HHS employees, including 1,300 CDC scientists, doctors, and health officials, received “reduction in force” notices. It was then reported that nearly half of the employees fired last weekend were terminated “by mistake” and CDC moved to rehire them, reportedly including leaders of the federal measles response team, a group of scientists working to contain the Ebola virus in Congo, epidemiologists specializing in combating outbreaks and the office that assembles the CDC’s weekly scientific journal.
This comes after 400 CDC employees responsible for tracking and preventing infectious disease were rehired after their termination in another round of mass firings in June.
“The CDC is now in disarray and its workforce deeply demoralized. That means the United States and the American people are less safe from deadly disease.” Sen. Ossoff and the group wrote to Sec. Kennedy. “Your reckless demolition of an essential public health agency appears motivated to significant extent by personal animus and a failure to grasp basic facts about its work. That is unacceptable for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect public health, the CDC, and its workforce.
This June, Sen. Ossoff defeated the Trump Administration effort to defund the CDC in the Senate by helping pass a bipartisan appropriations bill through the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee that maintains normal levels of funding for the CDC, a significant win for the Georgia-based agency.
Also in June, Sen. Ossoff demanded answers following an NPR report that the CDC Program to prevent fentanyl overdoses had been frozen.
Sen. Ossoff also demanded answers in a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing from the Trump Administration’s Budget Director, Russell Vought, about the administration’s plan to gut the CDC budget by over 50%.
In March, Sen. Ossoff and other members of Congress demanded that the Trump Administration provide answers on the reported shutdown of a critical Maternal Health data system at the CDC.
Click here to read the group’s full inquiry.
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