Congress demands phone records between CDC’s Walensky and teachers’ union head
Breccan F. Thies
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A House panel demanded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide phone records between director Rochelle Walensky and teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten to review “potential political interference.”
The House Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), sent a letter to Walensky on Wednesday in response to the June 13 testimony that the CDC director had communications with Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
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Teachers’ unions were advocating keeping schools closed throughout the pandemic, and were in contact with government officials as the CDC was writing guidance on when it was safe to re-open.
Wenstrup is looking to preserve phone records between the two on both Walensky’s official and personal phones, particularly in light of the director’s announcement she would be leaving her post Friday.
The committee has twice requested additional documents and communications from the CDC, but the letter condemns the Department of Health and Human Services for “continuing its pattern of obstructing Congress,” only providing documents that were already made public through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“The Department’s obstruction will not be tolerated,” Wenstrup wrote.
“Parents all over the country watched in horror at the academic, physical, and social-emotional harm done to their kids while school buildings were closed, and they know the CDC and teachers’ unions unnecessarily delayed school reopening,” Michael Chamberlain, director of the government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Washington Examiner. “Records obtained from FOIA requests have revealed close coordination between federal agency leadership and teachers’ unions while the CDC was developing its reopening guidance, and that unions had tremendous influence on the final product.
“Records PPT obtained from the Department of Education indicate that a former employee of the NEA [National Education Association] was coordinating with union officials virtually until the time the guidance was released, possibly in violation of ethics obligations,” Chamberlain, who served in the Education Department during the Trump administration, continued. “Along with the admissions of Randi Weingarten and CDC Director Walensky that they had had conversations, American citizens, and especially parents whose children suffered, have every to know the extent of those conversations.”
Wenstrup gave the CDC until July 12 to respond with the communications records. The committee has also requested transcribed interviews with three CDC employees, Drs. Christopher Jones, Henry Walke, and Greta Massetti, who “may have supplementary knowledge about potential political interference at the agency.”
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President Joe Biden chose Mandy Cohen, former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, to replace Walensky.
The Washington Examiner reached out to CDC and AFT for comment.