ATLANTA -- Bush administration audits of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention have provoked complaints from center officials
who say the requests are hindering the organization's ability to
effectively execute HIV prevention programs.
Fox News reports officials of the Health and Human Services
Department's inspector general's office, who are charged with overseeing
the Atlanta-based CDC, confirm that all of the CDC's HIV and
AIDS-related programs are currently under review.
In addition, HHS officials are also reviewing grants and contracts
administered by the CDC, creating enormous administrative demands on CDC
staff.
The review follows a critical report last year that objected to the
content of some HIV-prevention programs being conducted in San
Francisco. Conservatives said sexually explicit programs were being run
with CDC funds that ought to be considered inappropriate under
government Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who has advocated
abstinence as an appropriate HIV prevention strategy and pushed for the
repeal of the District of Columbia's domestic partnership law, said the
review was entirely appropriate under the circumstances.
"It seems that the CDC has been influenced by various political
agendas instead of a strict political mandate," said Weldon.
CDC advocates say that while a healthy monitoring of taxpayer funding
is wise, the Bush administration has created a "culture of tension and
micromanagement" that is threatening the ability of the CDC to
effectively pursue its public health mandate.
"In my experience, the first year under any new administration,
Republican or Democrat, the particular agencies are very active in
trying to respond to the political agenda of the administration in
power," said William Cates of Family Health International and a 20 year
veteran of the CDC.
"Regardless of that, it seems to me that there has been a more
restrictive and sort of micromanaging oversight from the standpoint of
this administration that has continued beyond that first year and has
tended, in my mind, to harm us rather than build on the collective
expertise at the CDC."
