House oversight committee demands answers on gutting of CDC public records office

The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability wants answers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about why its public records staff was gutted on April 1, when thousands of federal health agency workers were fired.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, sent a letter to CDC’s acting director Dr. Susan Monarez on Thursday, expressing “concern” about the 22 staffers who handled and fulfilled public records requests being placed on administrative leave until their jobs are eliminated on June 2. Their work has been mandated by Congress since the 1960s under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

“As a result, there are currently zero personnel available to process FOIA requests received by CDC,” Connolly writes. “The elimination of staff responsible for facilitating FOIA strongly implies an effort by the Administration to prevent the public from obtaining information about their government that they are entitled to request.”

NPR asked CDC for comment but didn’t get an immediate response.

NPR reported earlier this month that FOIA officers at the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services were also let go, making it harder for the public to access information about the government.

In the letter, Connolly asked how the agency would continue to comply with public records laws. He also asked for information on outstanding requests and communications between the Trump administration and CDC officials.

Connolly also pointed out that there were several ongoing outbreaks of infectious disease in the U.S. “Now more than ever, maintaining transparency about the operations of the broader HHS —and CDC in particular — is crucial to understanding the government’s capacity to respond to such crises.”

During a press conference Tuesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was “restoring all the FOIA offices,” though it wasn’t immediately clear whether he would be replacing or rehiring terminated FOIA staffers. He said it would be “much easier” to get information from HHS, and that his agency would aim to post documents to its website “as much as we can.”

“The papers that we produce in this agency do not belong to us,” he said. “They belong to the American people, and we need to be honest with them.”

Kennedy used to chair an anti-vaccine advocacy group called Children’s Health Defense, which sued the FDA for COVID-19 vaccine records under FOIA in 2023. As part of the latest federal court order on April 9, Judge Randolph D. Moss expressed “concern” about the FOIA staff layoffs and the agency’s ability to produce required records.

“In short, the agency stands forewarned that the Court expects it to comply with its obligations under FOIA and that it may not evade those obligations by dismissing or failing to replace the FOIA staff that is needed to do so,” the order read.

Greta Pittenger contributed to this report.

You can reach Sydney Lupkin at slupkin@npr.org or on Signal at sydneylupkin.36.