by Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D.: “CDC Off Center,” a 115-page oversight report authored by the Minority Office of the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, under the direction of ranking member Senator Tom Coburn, examines how CDC has tilted off center and makes recommendations about how it might get back on track. The American people expect CDC to spend its $10 billion budget this year treating and preventing diseases and dealing with public safety threats, including the threat of bioterrorism. While CDC will meet some of those expectations, if history is any guide, it will also waste millions . . . .Some questionable examples in the report of CDC’s spending:
- $1.7 million - including terrorism funds - on a Hollywood liaison program, which happens to be run by a former employee (pg 87)
- $45 million for conferences, including those featuring prostitutes, protests & parties (pgs 48-60)
- $30,000 employee saunas in a new $200,000 fitness center that also includes mood-enhancing lightshows and $3,500 worth of zero-gravity chairs (pg 15)
- $5 billion spent over seven years on HIV/AIDS prevention funding, and yet the U.S. still sees 40,000 new cases each year, with no decrease in infection rates for over a decade (pgs 23-37)
- Syphilis prevention funds used to feature a porn star’s presentation (pg 44)
- HIV/AIDS prevention funds spent on a transgender beauty pageant (pg 45)
- $250,000 spent so two former employees could help build staff morale (pgs 100-101)
- $5.1 million on “audio visual integration” in the new Thomas R. Harkin communications and visitor center, including a giant 70-foot-wide by 25-foot-tall video wall of plasma screen TVs showcasing agency vignettes (pg 8)
- 110 CDC employees traveled to two international AIDS conferences, when buying retroviral drugs with the trip funds could have prevented mother-to-child AIDS transmission for more than 115,000 infants (pgs 50 & 52)
- New Hawaii office opening soon, announcement made by Senator from Hawaii who oversees agency’s funding (pg18)
- $335 million on ads to fight childhood obesity… kids saw the ads, whether or not the ads affected their behavior is another question (pgs 69-71)
- $128,000 in CDC bioterrorism funds spent by L.A. County on trinkets such as letter openers, whistles, magnets, mouse pads, flashlights, pens, etc. (pgs 106-110). [Read More]
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