Democratic Lawmakers Inquire About Alleged Prohibited Words In CDC Budget Documents; 7 Words Already Used Less In Trump Budget, Analysis Shows

CQ News: Members Seek Info From HHS on ‘Banned Words’ in Budget Plans
“…[O]n Monday, lawmakers involved in CDC funding and oversight wrote to Eric D. Hargan, the acting HHS secretary, to verify whether these words and phrases have been banned, and why. ‘This explicit prohibition on the use of certain words or phrases unnecessarily inserts ideology into the work of the CDC,’ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., wrote in a letter to Hargan. Respectively, they are the ranking members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversee the CDC. Murray is also the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees most of HHS’s discretionary spending. In a statement to CQ, HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd said that HHS not not banned employees from using certain words…” (Siddons, 12/18).

ScienceInsider: CDC word ban? The fight over seven health-related words in the president’s next budget
“…On Friday, the Washington Post reported that CDC officials last week flagged seven words and phrases — diversity, entitlement, evidence-based, fetus, science-based, transgender, and vulnerable — that should not be used in connection with the budget document, due out in early February 2018. An analysis by ScienceInsider of the past four CDC budget requests finds that such a policy may have already gone into effect: Those words, in toto, appeared two-thirds less frequently in Trump’s 2018 budget request to Congress than in former President Barack Obama’s final budget submission for 2017…” (Cohen, 12/18).

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