Anti-Science Congress cut $600 mn. from Agency Leading Ebola Response

http://www.juancole.com/2014/10/science-congress-response.html

Anti-Science Congress cut $600 mn. from Agency Leading Ebola Response
By contributors | Oct. 5, 2014
News365

“WASHINGTON — The lead agency tasked with responding to the threat of Ebola both within the United States and abroad has seen its budget drop dramatically in the past four years.

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But CDC officials and lawmakers who support the agency warn that years of austerity has hobbled both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, both in terms of their ability to combat future outbreaks and their ability to prevent them from happening in the first place.

According to numbers provided by a Senate Budget Committee staffer, the CDC has actually recovered nicely from the sequestration cuts that went into effect a year ago. The agency has been allocated $5.882 billion in fiscal year 2014, compared to the $5.432 billion it received after the cuts took place.

But if you move back the timeline a bit, you see that investment in the CDC has still fallen dramatically. The agency’s current budget, in fact, is nearly $600 million lower than it was in 2010.