Government official confirms stunning report about Trump administration ‘violations’

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A career employee for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is confirming details about many of the Trump administration’s violations, behaviors, and practices. 

A new report published by Politico highlights the days following the departure of Tom Novotny, who previously served as the Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Refugee Health. Joshua Prasad, who served as a public health adviser under Novotny, penned a letter about his Sept. 13, 2017 meeting where he claims he was “pushed to resign or be fired himself, and then swiftly marched out of the building by security.”

The timing of Prasad’s firing raised red flags. The termination is said to have gone into effect on Sept. 15, 2017 just one day before “Prasad’s protections as a career civil servant would have kicked in, which would have made it nearly impossible for the Trump administration to swiftly fire him.” Continue reading.

Trump to overhaul HHS office, shield health workers with moral objections

The following article by Dan Diamond and Jennifer Haberkorn was posted on the Politico website January 16, 2018:

HHS is planning to announce the changes at its headquarters Thursday morning. | Getty Images

The Trump administration on Thursday will announce an overhaul of the HHS civil rights office as part of a broader plan to protect health workers who don’t want to perform abortions, treat transgender patients seeking to transition or provide other services for which they have religious or moral objections.

Under a proposed rule — which has been closely guarded at HHS and is now under review by the White House — the civil rights office would be empowered to further shield these workers and punish organizations that don’t allow them to express their religious and moral objections, according to sources on and off the Hill. That would be a significant shift for the office, which currently focuses on enforcing federal civil rights and health care privacy laws. Continue reading “Trump to overhaul HHS office, shield health workers with moral objections”