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House Democrats Demand Answers From CDC Over Recent Changes to Vaccine Advisory Panel
House Democrats on the Oversight Committee are calling for an urgent briefing with staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), demanding answers over recent moves that have taken place among the agency’s vaccine advisory panel, ABC News can exclusively report.
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia and Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Ranking Member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi sent a letter on Thursday morning to CDC chief of staff Matthew Buzzelli, expressing concern over the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Recently, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 sitting members of the ACIP and replaced them with hand-selected members, some of whom have expressed vaccine-skeptic views.
During the first meeting with the new members a few weeks later, the ACIP refused to recommend certain flu vaccines with thimerosal, said it would be examining the child immunization schedule — including whether babies needed to receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth — and heard a presentation from “the former president of Secretary Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization,” according to a copy of the letter viewed by ABC News.
DOJ Subpoenas Doctors Over Youth Gender Care
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics “involved in performing transgender medical procedures on children.” Though additional details on the subpoenas and their recipients were not immediately available, the department said investigations include healthcare fraud and false statements.
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. The issue also came up in a Wednesday workshop held by the Federal Trade Commission on “unfair or deceptive trade practices” in gender-affirming care for youth.
Speaking at the event, Chad Mizelle, chief of staff at the DOJ, noted that “there’s a basic principle of law, you cannot deceive consumers.” “You cannot lie to them to get them to buy your products, use your services,” Mizelle said. “You cannot commit fraud. This is true in providing medical services, but also more generally.
There’s no doubt in my mind, based not only on what we’ve heard here today, but just looking around with our own eyes, that the industry that is formed around providing gender-affirming care and transitioning services for children has perpetuated one of the greatest frauds on the American public.”
FDA Funding Clash Looms Between Senate, House
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Senate appropriators unanimously advanced a funding bill Thursday that maintains the agency’s funding in fiscal 2026 at roughly the same level as in fiscal 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill, which advanced by a 27-0 vote, funds the agency at $7 billion, comprised of $3.6 billion in taxpayer funds and $3.4 billion in user fee revenues.
Funding wars: That sets up a showdown with the House, which advanced a party-line FDA spending bill out of committee last month that funds the agency with $6.8 billion in total funding, in line with what President Donald Trump asked Congress to provide to the agency.
Senate report language: A handful of nuggets are buried in the Senate’s committee report — including an admonishment of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for convening panels on talc, infant formula and cell and gene therapies.
“The FDA should assess scientific issues in a transparent manner and must adhere to principles established by Congress in the Federal Advisory Committee Act,” the report states. “The Committee is concerned that the agency did not allow public participation or provide for public comments and panelists did not disclose potential conflicts of interest.”
FDA, in Policy Shift, Publishes Some Drug Rejection Letters
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday published more than 200 drug rejection letters in a notable policy shift it said will pull back the curtain on feedback the agency gives to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
The FDA has not historically made public the details of its rejection decisions, citing the confidential trade secrets such verdicts contain. While publicly traded drugmakers are bound by financial disclosure rules to inform investors of a rejection, they typically only share limited information and sometimes leave out agency comments that are more damaging or critical.
Past FDA Commissioners, including Scott Gottlieb and Robert Califf, previously explored making these letters public, but backed off for administrative and legal reasons.
HHS Abruptly Cancels Preventive Services Task Force Meeting
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly postponed a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force originally scheduled for Thursday, according to an email sent to people who planned to attend. “The Immediate Office of the Secretary is postponing the July USPSTF meeting. Moving forward, HHS looks forward to engaging with the Task Force to promote the health and well-being of the American people,” the email stated.
An HHS spokesperson confirmed the cancellation but did not provide a reasoning.
The cancellation comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision last month that asserted Kennedy has power to hire and fire members of the task force at will, and to review and potentially delay or veto the recommendations they issue — something no prior administration has done.
The task force is composed of medical experts who serve four-year terms on a volunteer basis. They are appointed by the HHS secretary and are supposed to be shielded from political influence. Congress designed the task force to be “independent and, to the extent practicable, not subject to political pressure.”
