Oversight Democrat questions how CDC can provide public records without staffers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

04/24/25 3:39 PM ET


Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is demanding to know how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests when the relevant staff have been put on administrative leave.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off or eliminated HHS staffers in charge of handling FOIA requests at the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, according to reporting earlier this month. The move raised alarm among lawmakers and health care stakeholders as Kennedy had vowed to usher in an era of “radical transparency” at federal health agencies.

“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. I urge you to provide detailed information responsive to the requests included in this letter to bring transparency to the FOIA operations within the CDC,” Connolly wrote in a letter to acting CDC Director Susan Monarez.

Since 1967, the public has been entitled to request almost any public records from any federal agency. Under the law, a response to a FOIA request is required to be sent out within 20 days of the agency receiving the request. Certain records are exempted from FOIA requests.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5265662-cdc-foia-action-connolly/

[Buddyzbuddy]

1. Don't you understand. To you, it's a problem, to them it's a solution

to a problem they're creating.
Courts have been handing down half-ass decisions putting temporary holds/blocks for 1 week here, 2 weeks there with hearings and arguments to be held at future dates. But unable to reverse 100% of any executive orders. The court system is slow and deliberate which is no match for the strafing runs this administration has been making.
By using executive orders there is no legislative branch to slow it down. He is ruling by decree acceptable to the Republicans in power. Right now the courts are all we have but as you can see. They don't feel threatened. They are providing lip service only while continuing their lawlessness. I would compare it to a locomotive encountering a strong headwind. It's no fault of the branch, they're doing what they can, under the circumstances.
IMHO, the stress will be so intolerable the result will be unspeakable acts perpetrated on both sides as action and reaction. It can be the end of a nightmare or the beginning of the end of our democracy.
Caesar, Mussolini, Gaddafi, Hussein.