Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) will try to block a GOP-backed plan that would cut portions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget, he told the Associated Press on Sunday, arguing that such a measure could put public health at risk.
THE Home version The 2025 budget for the CDC and other agencies includes a 22 percent reduction in the department’s budget, about $1.8 billion. Schumer told the AP that he will fight to have this reduction removed from the Senate’s version of the budget.
Budget cuts “would wreak havoc and chaos on food security financing mechanisms and central-level monitoring of operations,” he said. “A 22% reduction for the CDC at a time when there is a listeria outbreak should shake all of our stomachs.”
Schumer was referring to an outbreak of the disease in Boar’s Head cold cuts that began last month. The outbreak left three people dead, dozens hospitalized and impacted millions of kilos of products.
The Senate leader said that if the House version of the budget is approved, “the federal government’s overall food security apparatus could be at risk.”
“It’s devastating,” he said. “The Senate will not support them.”
The House funding bill it happened the GOP-controlled Appropriations Committee in a party-line vote last month.
“By introducing this bill to the full Committee, Republicans show that we are united in strengthening our national security, reining in executive branch overreach, and supporting American values and principles,” Committee Republicans said in a statement this month past.
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