Political appointees approving all federal grants?
It started with the Department of Governmental Efficiency or DOGE, Elon Musk’s sledgehammer approach to reforming the federal government. This resulted in more than 350,000 federal employees fired or voluntarily left their jobs.
Millions of people are now losing their health insurance, as a consequence to the Trump administration’s cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act benefits passed under the Obama administration.
Communicable diseases, almost completely avoidable with vaccinations, are on the rise. Many of us have heard about the outbreaks of measles throughout the country since the Trump administration has ascended to power. But since, Secretary of Defense Hegseth announced that vaccinations were not mandatory in the military, it didn’t take long to see the results of this policy. There is a flu outbreak at Lackland Airforce Base; 275 cases of flu, four hospitalizations and one possible death.
This is all part of the strategy to create chaos and lack of faith in what we can do together, and what the government can do successfully. And now, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would like to set in stone this chaos by, as part of a large set of proposed rules, putting a political appointee in charge of all federal government funding decisions of any grant for any topic – yes federally funded roads and sewers too!
As the advocacy organization Defending Public Health has asserted, these changes will devastate science and impact our local and state services. These rule changes will impact everyone’s lives, which is why Ask Nurses and Doctors joins many organizations in speaking out against it. Comments are due on Monday, July 13. Please consider writing in. You can find a detailed breakdown of the proposed rule here together with suggestions on how to write your comments and a link on where to submit comments.
Norbert Goldfield, M.D., founder and executive director of Healing Across the Divides and Ask Nurses and Doctors
Northampton