House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. Charles Dharapak/AP
Federal Health Officials Face Questions from All Sides on Capitol Hill
Democrats are focused on budget cuts to health agencies, while GOP questions the competence of the U.S. response to the Ebola crisis.
The big guns of federal health agencies will appear Thursday at a noon hearing on the Ebola crisis for what is likely to be a political showdown over gaps in the U.S. response.
“Ebola has been on the world's radar screen since March and yet the United States and the international community are still scrambling to stay ahead of and stop this outbreak,” said the pre-hearing statement from House Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. “The stakes could not be any higher, and as I have said before, we cannot afford to look back at this point in history and say we could have done more.”
The panel’s Oversight subcommittee chair, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., questioned the competence of responders: “Questions continue to emerge as this outbreak has continued, further heightening our concerns about the response and preparedness efforts both at home and abroad. Just a few weeks ago there was an urgent need to quickly stop the spread of Ebola in Africa, but now we also need to assure Americans that we are able to stop the spread here at home. There is no room for error when it comes to Ebola.”
But Democrats appear to be most concerned about how budget cuts may have affected the federal capacity to respond to the outbreak. They had pressed for a hearing in September, while Congress was in recess, and wrote a letter to Upton and colleagues on Oct. 1 urging a discussion of whether budget cuts have harmed the health agencies’ response, as well as an examination of regulations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“How have stagnant or declining budgets for U.S. public health agencies affected their ability to respond in this crisis?” asked Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; Frank Pallone, D-N.J.; and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., in a statement suggesting a focus for the hearing. “Are federal regulations and policies related to hospitals and other medical facility emergency preparedness adequate?” President Obama requested $6.6 billion for the CDC in 2015, a decrease of $243 million from this year’s budget.
Witnesses for the noon hearing include:
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; Dr. Luciana Borio, assistant commissioner for counterterrorism policy at the Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Robin Robinson, director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; and John Wagner, acting assistant commissioner of the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations.
Click to enlarge CDC charts on its budget.
