Congress demands phone records between CDC’s Walensky and teachers’ union head
- June 28, 2023
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.
“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 right to know the extent of those conversations.”