Sen. Tommy Tuberville is driving efforts for Americans to regain trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee met Friday to analyze the shortcomings in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuberville (R-Auburn) proposed an amendment that would make the CDC director a Senate-confirmed position immediately, instead of waiting until 2025, which bipartisan provisions already call for.
The CDC has more than 10,000 employees and will direct $11.5 billion in discretionary spending next year. But the director of the CDC is not required to receive Senate approval.
“Americans have truly lost so much faith in the CDC as an institution, and one of the best things we can do to set us up to defeat a future pandemic is to give Americans a voice when it comes to leadership at such an important agency,” Tuberville said.
In today's HELP committee markup of PAHPA, @SenTuberville introduced an amendment that would immediately make the CDC director a position that requires confirmation by the Senate. pic.twitter.com/zx5qPEFDwn
— HELP Committee GOP (@GOPHELP) July 20, 2023
Nearly three years after COVID-19 appeared, members of the committee expressed concern the U.S. is unprepared for the next deadly pandemic.
“We did learn some tough lessons,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said. “We’re updating the playbook.”
Last year in testimony to Congress, former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky called for the agency to be overhauled after an external review found it had failed to respond quickly and clearly to COVID-19. She faulted the agency for acting too much like an academic institution instead of taking action.
“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19 and, in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Walensky said.
Tuberville and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Restoring Trust in Public Health Act in September which would accomplish the goal of an immediate confirmation of that role. Today’s amendment also would have sped it up.
Grayson Everett is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @Grayson270
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