{"id":28771,"date":"2025-10-21T10:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=28771"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:47:08","slug":"sen-ossoff-georgias-congressional-democratic-delegation-demand-answers-on-latest-round-of-chaotic-cdc-firings","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-georgias-congressional-democratic-delegation-demand-answers-on-latest-round-of-chaotic-cdc-firings\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff, Georgia&#8217;s Congressional Democratic Delegation Demand Answers on Latest Round of Chaotic CDC Firings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 Georgia&#8217;s Democratic Congressional Delegation is demanding answers on the latest CDC firings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is leading Georgia\u2019s Democratic Congressional Delegation in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Letter-to-Sec.-Kennedy-Oct.-10-CDC-RIFs.pdf\">calling on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.<\/a>&nbsp;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 \u2014 and re-hirings \u2014 of CDC employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/atlanta\/news\/furloughed-cdc-workers-paychecks-government-shutdown-effects\/\">Earlier this month<\/a>, 1,760 HHS employees, including 1,300 CDC scientists, doctors, and health officials, received \u201creduction in force\u201d notices. It was then&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/11\/health\/cdc-layoffs-measles.html\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;that nearly half of the employees fired last weekend were terminated \u201cby mistake\u201d 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\u2019s weekly scientific journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This comes after 400 CDC employees responsible for tracking and preventing infectious disease were&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/06\/12\/nx-s1-5430893\/cdc-employees-layoffs-revoked-hhs-hepatitis-lab\">rehired<\/a>&nbsp;after their termination in another round of mass firings in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe 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.\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff and the group wrote to Sec. Kennedy.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cYour 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect public health, the CDC, and its workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This June, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/watch-sen-ossoff-defeats-effort-to-defund-the-cdc\/\">defeated<\/a>&nbsp;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also in June, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-demands-answers-on-report-that-cdc-program-to-prevent-fentanyl-overdoses-has-been-frozen\/\">demanded answers<\/a>&nbsp;following an NPR&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/07\/16\/nx-s1-5468535\/fentanyl-trump-addiction-funding\">report<\/a>&nbsp;that the CDC Program to prevent fentanyl overdoses had been frozen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/watch-sen-ossoff-presses-president-trumps-budget-director-on-plans-to-gut-cdcs-budget-by-over-50-percent\/\">demanded answers<\/a>&nbsp;in a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing from the Trump Administration\u2019s Budget Director, Russell Vought, about the administration\u2019s plan to gut the CDC budget by over 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March, Sen. Ossoff and other members of Congress&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-demanding-answers-from-the-trump-administration-on-abrupt-shutdown-of-cdcs-maternal-health-monitoring-system\/\">demanded<\/a>&nbsp;that the Trump Administration provide answers on the reported&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jezebel.com\/as-abortion-bans-drive-up-maternal-infant-mortality-trump-admin-shutters-key-cdc-program\">shutdown<\/a>&nbsp;of a critical Maternal Health data system at the CDC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Letter-to-Sec.-Kennedy-Oct.-10-CDC-RIFs.pdf\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to read the group\u2019s full inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"># # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;\u2014 Georgia&#8217;s Democratic Congressional Delegation is demanding answers on the latest CDC firings. U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is leading Georgia\u2019s Democratic Congressional Delegation in&nbsp;calling on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.&nbsp;to answer for the chaos and disruption at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28771","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28772,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28771\/revisions\/28772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}