Tag: Trump HHS

Trump official in charge of ‘shaping policies’ at HHS has been a college senior: report

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The Trump administration put a college senior in charge of personnel at the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Catherine Granito. She appears to have graduated this spring.

A Politico report Monday afternoon, “Trump administration shakes up HHS personnel office after tumultuous hires,” revealed the stunning placement – including that she has been “playing a role in shaping policies in the middle of a pandemic.”

HHS has an annual budget of $1.286 trillion. As of 2015 it had 79,540 employees. Continue reading.

Top HHS spokesperson takes leave of absence after accusing scientists of “sedition”

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Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo is taking a 60 day leave of absence “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Driving the news: Caputo baselessly accused career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a Facebook livestream on Sunday of gathering a “resistance unit” for “sedition” against President Trump, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. He apologized to staff on Tuesday, according to Politico.

  • In the same Facebook livestream, Caputo — a former Trump campaign official with no scientific background — encouraged followers to buy ammunition in the event that Joe Biden loses the election and refuses to concede. “And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” Caputo said. Continue reading.

Trump Health Aide Pushes Bizarre Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt

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Michael R. Caputo told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection and accused C.D.C. scientists of “sedition.”

WASHINGTON — The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus made outlandish and false accusations on Sunday that career government scientists were engaging in “sedition” in their handling of the pandemic and that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.

Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump, even if that opposition bolsters the Covid-19 death toll.

Mr. Caputo, who has faced intense criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump’s pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger from opponents of the administration. “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get,” he urged his followers. Continue reading.

HHS chief information officer abruptly resigns

José Arrieta and his team have been under considerable pressure inside and outside the administration.

HHS’ chief information officer, José Arrieta, resigned unexpectedly Friday.

Arrieta told senior leaders that he would stay on for up to a month to help with the transition, said two individuals with knowledge of his plans. He departs just four months after the department stood up the public data sharing hub HHS Protect, and a little over a year since he took over as chief information officer.

His departure was first reported by Federal News Network.

Arrieta and his team have been under considerable pressure inside and outside the administration, after HHS in July ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC when reporting certain coronavirus data. Continue reading.

Before the pandemic, top contractor received billions from government to help prepare the nation for biowarfare

Washington Post logoAs it races to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the Trump administration this month announced that one of its largest pandemic-related contracts would go to a little-known biodefense company named Emergent BioSolutions. “Emergent’s manufacturing capabilities will pave the way,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

The $628 million deal to help manufacture an eventual vaccine cemented Emergent’s status as the highest-paid and most important contractor to the HHS office responsible for preparing for public health threats and maintaining the government’s stockpile of emergency medical supplies.

Emergent has long been the government’s sole provider of BioThrax, a vaccine for anthrax poisoning. But over the past decade, the company has acquired biodefense competitors and treatments for smallpox, botulism and other threats for which there is no market outside of government. Continue reading.

Stephen Miller’s hard-line policies on refugee families make a comeback at HHS

While attention was on coronavirus, the White House quietly changed leaders in the office at the center of the family separation firestorm.

After the Trump administration abruptly installed a new hard-line leader last month, the health department’s refugee office is pushing to implement immigration policies favored by White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, according to four health department officials and internal documents reviewed by POLITICO.

The office — which takes custody of thousands of migrant children — is now seeking to delay placing migrant children in shelters operated by the health department, which would instead leave those children in the custody of the Border Patrol for an extended length of time, according to an internal email sent last week and reviewed by POLITICO.

Refugee office leaders are reviewing the policy of allowing undocumented immigrant adults to take custody of refugee children — a long-standing practice that dates back to the George W. Bush administration but has been opposed by Miller and other anti-immigration hard-liners, who think it rewards adults who are in the country illegally, officials said. Continue reading.

Trump lashes out at HHS secretary after briefing shows Democrats leading on health care

Washington Post logoPresident Trump lashed out at Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for not doing enough on health care and drug pricing during a campaign meeting this week after he was briefed on polling that showed the public trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the issue, according to four people present at or briefed about the meeting.

Campaign advisers were updating Trump at the White House on Thursday on polling from battleground states, including Florida, that showed which party voters trusted more on various issues. One of those issues was health care, which often polls as the top voter concern, and the data showed the public trusted Democrats more than Republicans.

Trump reacted furiously and said the Democrats would “kill us” on health care, according to the four people, who requested anonymity to candidly describe the private meeting. The president then picked up the phone, called Azar and put him on speakerphone in the middle of the meeting, the people said. Continue reading.

Why did so many Trump allies benefit from a lucrative HHS contract?

For much of the country, I imagine Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma is a relatively obscure figure in the Trump administration. She occasionally enters the fray – pushing Medicaid work requirements, blasting “Obamacare,” and making underwhelming political arguments – but for the most part, Verma is only known to public officials, industry stakeholders, health care wonks, and journalists who follow health care issues closely.

It’s against this backdrop that Politico has a new report on eight former members of Donald Trump’s operation – from his campaign, presidential transition team, or White House – who were paid quite a bit to reportedly work as outside public-relations consultants on Verma’s behalf.

They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The contractors were hired to burnish Verma’s personal brand and provide “strategic communications” support. They charged up to $380 per hour for work traditionally handled by dozens of career civil servants in CMS’s communications department.

View the complete November 12 article by Steve Benen on the MSNBC website here.

HHS Official Says Separated Migrant Kids Suffer ‘Extraordinary Trauma’

Cmdr. Jonathan White, a career public health official at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress on Wednesday that children separated from their families face “extraordinarily severe” trauma leading to likely lifelong harm of both a mental and physical nature.

Children were taken away from their families as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to discourage crossings at the border. The practice instead backfired, with the U.S. government thrust into the role of holding on to children who have been taken from their families.

White testified to a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee at a briefing titled “Oversight Hearing: Mental Health Needs of Children in HHS Custody.”

View the complete September 18 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

New Bill Would Hold HHS Feet to Fire for Unaccompanied Minors

Whereabouts of nearly 1,500 undocumented children are reportedly unknown

A bipartisan group of senators have introduced a bill designed to ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services takes full responsibility for, and keeps better track of, unaccompanied children who come to the border seeking entry to the United States and then are placed with U.S. sponsors.

The legislation follows a new report that revealed that the government could not determine the whereabouts of nearly 1,500 children that HHS had placed with sponsors this year.

The bill, introduced Tuesday by Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Rob Portman of Ohio and Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, would require HHS to notify state governments before placing a child in a state with a sponsor and would increase the number of immigration court judges to help the Justice Department reduce the immigration case backlog.

View the complete September 21 article by Camila DeChalus on the Roll Call website here.