Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will attempt to halt a GOP-backed plan that would cut portions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) budget, he told The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday, arguing such a move could endanger public health.
The House version of 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 that reduction removed from the Senate version of the budget.
The budget cuts “would wreak havoc and chaos on food safety funding mechanisms and tracking operations at a core level,” he said. “A slash of 22 percent to the CDC at a time when there’s a listeria outbreak should churn all our stomachs.”
Schumer was referring to an outbreak of the disease in Boar’s Head deli meats that began last month. The outbreak has left three people dead, dozens hospitalized and impacted millions of pounds of product.
The Senate leader said that if the House version of the budget passes, the “overall food safety apparatus of the federal government could be risked.”
“It’s devastating,” he said. “The Senate will not stand for them.”
The House funding bill passed the GOP-controlled Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote last month.
“By advancing this bill through the full Committee, Republicans show that we are united on bolstering our national security, reining in Executive Branch overreach, and supporting American values and principles,” committee Republicans said in a statement last month.