Schumer slams GOP’s proposed CDC budget cuts, says it would ‘create chaos for food safety’ amid listeria outbreak
Sen. Chuck Schumer pilloried the GOP’s proposal to slash the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget by more than a fifth — saying the mammoth cuts would unleash utter chaos during a major listeria outbreak that’s killed three and sickened dozens across the nation.
The proposed cuts, made by GOP members of the House who want to prune about $1.8 billion from the CDC’s coffers, would hamstring the agency and “wreak havoc and chaos on food safety funding mechanisms and tracking operations at a core level,” the Democratic majority leader said in a Monday statement.
“I am here today amid active federal budget negotiations to say that I will not let MAGA cold cuts to the CDC amid this deli meat listeria outbreak pass the Senate,” Schumer said, referencing a bacterial outbreak that began three months ago in now-recalled Boar’s Head liverwurst products.
“We are on recess, and the CDC needs this public guidance from the Senate so that it doesn’t risk cutting back on the current efforts to track, test, contain and stop this outbreak,” he continued. “So, I can publicly say that a 22% cut of the CDC will not happen with me as Majority Leader.”
Schumer added that a special food safety team from the agency is laboring to test, report and track the outbreak in New York City and on Long Island — areas he called “partially an epicenter” of the flare-up.
But the proposed cuts would imperil that team, as well as other food safety measures, he added.
The listeria outbreak has killed three people, put 10 in the hospital and infected 43 people across 13 states since it began in late May, according to Fox Business.
Of those, about a dozen cases happened in New York State, Schumer wrote. Each person had to be hospitalized.
Of the three who died, one lived in Virginia, another in New Jersey and the last in Illinois
The CDC has said the true number of people sickened is likely much higher, however.
Last week, Boar’s Head Provisions Co. widened its initial recall to include about 7 million additional pounds of meat and poultry products that could be contaminated with the potentially deadly bacteria, the outlet said.
In a statement to FOX, the company said it was “conducting a full review of processes and procedures to ensure we consistently meet the highest standards of safety and quality.”
“As soon as we learned that our liverwurst was linked to the outbreak, we voluntarily expanded our recall, as a precautionary measure, to include all other products made at the same facility,” the company said.
