Outgoing CDC head Rochelle Walensky to testify before Republican-led coronavirus committee
Gabe Kaminsky
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Departing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky has received a green light from the Biden administration to testify before Congress in mid-June, according to the House GOP.
The GOP-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and its chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), invited Walensky last week to testify on June 13 about the CDC’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to allow Walensky to appear, in a hearing that will likely see Republicans grill the director over the CDC’s scrutinized school reopening guidance in February 2021, the subcommittee announced on Tuesday.
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“As a leading public health official during the COVID-19 pandemic, Director Walensky’s knowledge of CDC policies and decisions is essential to the Select Subcommittee’s investigations, mission, and to help prepare America for a possible future pandemic,” the subcommittee said in a statement.
Walensky’s expected appearance on June 13 will come prior to her last day as the CDC’s director on June 30. She announced her resignation in early May, though reasons for the decision have remained unclear.
In late March, the subcommittee requested a handful of records from Walensky following revelations that the CDC sought input from the American Federation of Teachers, a top teachers union, in connection to its February 2021 school reopening guidance. Wenstrup’s invitation to the director for testimony was accompanied by a follow-up request for the records.
The request for records cited the fact that Americans for Public Trust, a conservative watchdog, obtained emails indicating that the AFT seemingly lobbied the CDC to pump the breaks on in-person learning in schools in 2021. The CDC issued guidance just days later that partly mirrored the union’s requests and allowed schools to opt out of in-person learning in some areas, according to documents.
“I can assure you that this is free from political meddling,” Walensky claimed in relation to the guidance after it was released on Feb. 12, 2021.
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News of the director’s testimony also comes days after a Washington Examiner report revealed that top Biden administration officials privately met with the AFT and other education groups in August 2021 to discuss COVID-19 vaccination rates, masking, and social distancing, among other topics.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the CDC for comment.