FYI: Unless there is some serious shenanigans over the long weekend, there will be no update on Monday, September 1st. Fingers crossed.
It is almost the (unofficial) end of the summer and, on this date in 1831, a 22 year old Charles Darwin was invited to join the expedition of the HMS Beagle.
Anyway, onto the news: Today it mostly concerns the federal budget and the ongoing situation at the CDC.
The President issued a memo yesterday directing the Attorney General to “investigate whether Federal grant funds are being used to illegally support lobbying activities and to take appropriate enforcement action.” The Fact Sheet makes it clearer that this is intended for grants with “highly political overtones“.
The Federal fiscal year ends October 1st and there has been quite a bit of activity this week related to the budget.
The New York Times has tracked how the Office of Management and Budget has restricted and imposed additional conditions on funds appropriated by congress. The agencies most affected are HHS, the State Department, and the Department of Education.
Last night the White House announced a pocket rescission to claw back billions of dollars in international aid (mostly through USAID). This will likely further complicate the budget process that is set to resume next week. Unlike the last rescission, which targeted public media funding, this was a unilateral decision.
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new rule which would, among other things, limit the duration of student visas to four years.
Earlier this week the chair of the House’s Education and Workforce Committee sent UCSF, UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine, and the University of Illinois College of Medicine demanding answers for “their failures to address antisemitism”.
Things continue to move very quickly at the CDC. The New York Times and Washington Post both have good summaries.
It appears that Jim O’Neill, a top deputy at HHS, will serve as the acting CDC director. The previous director, Dr. Susan Monarez, was fired after she refused to resign on Monday.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee - has called for an investigation into Wednesday’s events. Senator Patty Murray, also on the HELP committee has called for the Director to be fired, as has Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the HELP Committee and cast a pivotal vote in RFK Jr.’s confirmation as HHS Director, has promised oversight.
Messages sent by three of CDC leaders who resigned this week have made their way online and are quite remarkable in their candor. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, posted his resignation letter on X and was interviewed by The Advocate.
CDC employees staged a “clap out” yesterday afternoon for the employees that resigned.
HHS Director RFK Jr. is scheduled to testify before congress next week. His appearance has been in the works for several weeks.
HHS posted on the Federal Register today that the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be September 18th.
More from HHS in the last 48 hours:
HHS Director RFK Jr. was quoted on Wednesday saying that he can identify children with mitochondrial challenges just by observing them in public. This is, of course, complete nonsense. But there is a Parasite Eve joke in here somewhere.
HHS Director RFK Jr. was on Fox and Friends Thursday morning (I cannot possibly recommend you watch this) and stated that NIH will be looking into the contribution of SSRIs and other psychiatric medications to mass shootings, including the tragic events in Minnesota this week.
Similar to what happened in Indiana earlier this year, the University of Ohio will be restructuring academic departments this year in order to comply with a new state law that, among other things, sets graduation thresholds, bans DEI-related programming, and imposes post-tenure review on faculty.
One Last Thing
It’s a little out of scope for the usual content of this update, but this week the Administration moved to ban labor unions at several federal agencies. This comes a week after HHS moved to de-recognize union representation throughout the NIH, CDC, and FDA.
The first Labor Day celebration took place in New York City on September 5th, 1882. The state recognized the holiday for the first time five years later, with the New York Times reporting some choice vignettes (see below). 😒
