NEW YORK – The Senate’s top Democrat said Sunday he will work to block a plan that would significantly cut the proposed budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warning that such a spending reduction could endanger the public.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told The Associated Press he would block legislation from passing the Senate if it were to include the proposed cut.
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Democrats said the proposal in a House bill includes a reduction of the CDC’s proposed budget by $1.8 billion, or about 22%, that would harm public health. The Republican-led effort also would mean a major cut in programs designed to address firearm injuries and opioid overdose prevention.
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee advanced the measure on a party-line vote in July.
Schumer said such a reduction would “would wreak havoc and chaos on food safety funding mechanisms and tracking operations at a core level.”
He pointed specifically to the CDC’s work on the ongoing listeria food poisoning outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meats that has killed at least three people and sickened more than 40 others.
“A slash of 22% to the CDC at a time when there’s a listeria outbreak should churn all our stomachs,” Schumer said in an interview.
Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats on July 30, expanding an initial recall on July 25 after a liverwurst sample collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. The CDC said last week that New York health officials tested a liverwurst sample and confirmed the same strain of listeria.
The recall includes more than 70 products — including liverwurst, ham, beef salami and bologna — made at the company’s plant in Jarratt, Virginia.
If the measure passes, the “overall food safety apparatus of the federal government could be risked."
“It’s devastating,” Schumer said. “The Senate will not stand for them.”