Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will try to block a Republican-backed plan to cut parts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget. he told The Associated Press. On Sunday, it argued that such a move could put public health at risk.
of House version The 2025 budget for the CDC and other agencies includes a 22% cut to the agency’s budget, or about $1.8 billion. Schumer told The Associated Press he would fight to have the cuts removed from the Senate budget bill.
The cuts “will wreak havoc and confusion at a core level on food safety funding mechanisms and tracking,” he said. “A 22 percent cut in the CDC budget at a time when we’re in the middle of a Listeria outbreak should make us all angry.”
Schumer was referring to an illness outbreak that has been occurring at a meat processing plant in Boar’s Head since last month that has killed three people, hospitalized dozens and affected millions of pounds of product.
Senate Majority Leader Bush said that if the House budget bill passes, “it could put the entire federal food safety regime at risk.”
“This would be devastating,” he said. “The Senate will not support them.”
House Funding Bill Passed The Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee voted along party lines last month.
“By advancing this bill out of committee, Republicans are demonstrating their unity in strengthening national security, curbing the expansion of executive branch power, and upholding American values and principles,” the committee’s Republicans said in a statement last month.
