Washington, D.C- Today, House Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Republican Subcommittee Leader on Oversight and Investigations Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Republican Subcommittee Leader on Health Brett Guthrie (R-KY) sent this letter to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle P. Walensky.
In a call today with Director Walensky, Leader Rodgers expressed disappointment in the contradictory messages and shifting timelines for reopening schools coming from the Biden administration. She asked for Director Walensky to give more certainty to parents and work to get kids back in classrooms as soon as possible.
Griffith and Guthrie joined Rodgers in this letter urging the Biden administration to give certainty to parents and provide more information on how they prepared the CDC guidance for the Operational Strategy for Reopening Schools. The call for more transparency on the Biden administration’s decision-making process comes after reports that updated CDC guidance may lead to more school closures than openings. This is disappointing because school closures are having devastating effects on America’s children. It is time the Biden administration standup to teachers unions and say enough is enough. We need to prioritize children, not political interests.
The Biden Administration has until March 5, 2021, to respond to the letter with answers on what data, studies, and individuals were consulted to develop the CDC’s updated guidance.
In the letter, these senior members of the Energy and Commerce Committee write:
“The shifting positions and contradictory statements from the Biden administration concern us because parents need certainty. We are also concerned that politics may be overtaking science in the Biden administration, which is leading to unnecessary, prolonged school closures. President Biden has repeatedly pledged that ‘science and truth’ would be guiding principles to his administration, but your updated guidance seems to abandon those principles. As the Director of the CDC, you have an obligation to our Nation’s children to follow the ‘science and truth.’"
