fool7？

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[贵圈]

E&C Investigation Reveals Key NIH Officials—Including Dr. Fauci—Likely Served Unlawfully​

Jul 10, 2023

Letter

Letter - Oversight and Investigations

Letter - Health

Press Release

Health

Oversight & Investigations
NIH Directors Were Not Properly Reappointed from December 2021 to June 2023
Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) today revealed that 14 National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials, including former National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, were not properly reappointed to their positions in December of 2021, as required by law. Chair Rodgers, along with Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) began their investigation in March of 2022 and revealed their findings publicly in a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, which was covered exclusively by CBS:

The Biden administration allegedly failed to correctly reappoint more than a dozen top-ranking National Institutes of Health leaders, House Republicans say, raising questions about the legality of billions in federal grants doled out by those officials over the last year.
[...]
"The failure to reappoint the above NIH IC Directors jeopardizes the legal validity of more than $25 billion in federal biomedical research grants made in 2022 alone," the committee wrote.
[...]
"Institute directors with discretion to award billions or even hundreds of millions in research funding are, by definition, exercising significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States. As such, institute directors are the quintessential 'inferior officers,'" a former senior HHS official told CBS News.
"The Secretary cannot delegate his or her constitutional authority to appoint inferior officers. It is my understanding that prior administrations of both parties zealously guarded the appointments process and took care to ensure that inferior officers were properly appointed," said the former senior official, who previously served in the Bush, Reagan and Trump administrations.
CLICK HERE to read more.
KEY EXCERPTS OF THEIR LETTER TO SEC. BECERRA:
“We write raising serious concerns about your failure to follow the law and ensure accountability of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As detailed below, it has become apparent that you, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, did not reappoint a number of Institute and Center (IC) Directors at the NIH. Your failure could have grave implications for the validity of actions taken by 14 NIH IC Directors during their unlawful tenure, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.”
[…]
“The failure to reappoint the above NIH IC Directors jeopardizes the legal validity of more than $25 billion in federal biomedical research grants made in 2022 alone.”
[…]
“Given his central role in the COVID-19 response, the Committee is particularly concerned about the failure to reappoint Dr. Fauci. Without reappointment, Dr. Fauci continued to serve as NIAID Director until his retirement on December 31, 2022. If Dr. Fauci was never reappointed, every action he took is potentially invalid.”
[…]
“We also intend to get a full accounting of who at HHS and the NIH decided to mislead the Committee and why. HHS and the NIH’s bad faith and failure to follow the law in this matter epitomizes why Americans no longer trust federal public health agencies. Not only did HHS and NIH ignore the law, it is also grossly unfair that Dr. Fauci – who unlawfully held his position after December 13, 2021 – could use his authority to push authoritarian mandates on the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic response. Greater accountability is needed.”
BACKGROUND:

• Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, NIH IC Directors are inferior officers of the United States.
• Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in 2016.
• Section 2033 of the 21st Century Cures Act, titled Increasing Accountability at the National Institutes of Health, lays out the framework by which NIH IC Directors must be appointed and reappointed.
• Specifically, it requires the Secretary of HHS to reappoint NIH IC Directors, including those who were serving at the time of the law’s enactment when their five-year terms expired on December 12, 2021.
• The 21st Century Cures Act also requires NIH IC Directors “review and make the final decision with respect” to all competitive grant awards issued by their Institute or Center. This makes the NIH IC Directors the final decision maker on grant awards.

KEY FINDING:
The Chairs' investigation revealed that Secretary Becerra failed to reappoint these 14 NIH IC Directors, calling into question the validity of any decision made by a director between December 2021 and June 2023. This includes the approval of billions of dollars in taxpayer funded grants—including to EcoHealth Alliance—and COVID-19-related guidance provided by Dr. Fauci to the White House.
FULL LETTER:
July 7, 2023
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Secretary Becerra,
We write raising serious concerns about your failure to follow the law and ensure accountability of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As detailed below, it has become apparent that you, as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), did not reappoint a number of Institute and Center (IC) Directors at the NIH. Your failure could have grave implications for the validity of actions taken by 14 NIH IC Directors during their unlawful tenure, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Appointment of NIH IC Directors
Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in 2016. Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, NIH IC Directors are inferior officers of the United States. Section 2033 of the 21st Century Cures Act, titled Increasing Accountability at the National Institutes of Health, lays out the framework by which NIH IC Directors must be appointed and reappointed. Specifically, it requires the Secretary of HHS to reappoint NIH IC Directors, including those who were serving at the time of the law’s enactment when their five-year terms expired on December 12, 2021.
The Secretary of HHS is traditionally involved in senior level appointments at the department and operating divisions. In past administrations, the Secretary has approved the appointments or reappointments of NIH IC Directors. When section 2033 of the 21st Century Cures Act became law, it made the requirement explicit and set a term limit, the Secretary must appoint and reappoint the NIH IC Directors on December 13, 2021.
As noted by a National Academy of Science report: “Most [IC] directors chose to move into the Title 42 program, so they are, in fact, already subject to 5-year renewable terms. Under this system, the Secretary of Health and Human Services retains approval authority for appointments. Thus, the NIH Director can only recommend, but not appoint, senior leadership in the agency.” (emphasis added)
Investigation and Findings
It has become increasingly clear that you never appointed or reappointed the 14 NIH IC Directors in December of 2021. HHS and the NIH repeatedly assured the Committee that the NIH IC Directors were validly reappointed but did not produce proper supporting documentation. For example, in its first response to the Committee on April 5, 2022, the NIH claimed “[a]ll current IC Directors who were serving as of December 13, 2016, have undergone review and have been reappointed to new 5-year term appointments,” and submitted a chart showing that the NIH Director was the official who made the reappointments of the NIH IC Directors, which even if true, is contrary to what the law requires.
A May 5, 2023, letter from HHS Assistant Secretary Melanie Egorin, in response to our April 21, 2023, letter, correctly identified the HHS Secretary as the approving official for NIH IC Director appointments but did not respond to the Committee’s questions about the reappointments. Her letter did not provide any documents establishing the HHS Secretary had made the appointments and reappointments. HHS staff also declined to confirm the reappointments in discussion with Committee staff while again referring the above-mentioned chart as evidence of the reappointments.
On June 19, 2023, HHS finally produced documents, titled “Ratification of Prior Selection and Prospective Appointment: Appointment Affidavit” (herein after “Appointment Affidavit”), and signed by you, purporting to show that some of the NIH IC Directors at issue were reappointed. However, the Appointment Affidavits were signed on June 8, 2023, and June 15, 2023 – not December 13, 2021. Critically, no appointment affidavits were produced for two NIH IC Directors, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Roger Glass, who were serving in December 2016, but retired before June 2023.
Based on the information provided to date, the Committee believes that you failed to reappoint the NIH IC Directors listed below after their terms expired on December 13, 2021. Instead, the NIH handled the reappointments as an internal matter, signed by an NIH human resources director, whose name was redacted by HHS. Only after multiple investigative letters and extensive discussion with the Committee did you apparently reappoint these NIH IC Directors in a series of signed appointment affidavits issued on June 8, and 15, 2023, some eighteen months after their terms expired. In total 14 current and former NIH IC Directors are impacted:
· Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)
· Dr. Richard Hodes, National Institute on Aging (NIA)
· Dr. Nora Volkow, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
· Dr. Roger Glass, Fogarty International Center (FIC)
· Dr. Griffin Rodgers, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
· Dr. Eric Green, National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
· Dr. Gary Gibbons, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
· Dr. Jon Lorsch, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
· Dr. George Koob, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
· Dr. Walter Koroshetz, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
· Dr. Elisio Perez-Stable, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
· Dr. Patricia Brennan, National Library of Medicine (NLM)
· Dr. Joshua Gordon, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
· Dr. Diana Bianchi, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
The failure to reappoint the above NIH IC Directors jeopardizes the legal validity of more than $25 billion in federal biomedical research grants made in 2022 alone. The 21st Century Cures Act requires NIH IC Directors “review and make the final decision with respect” to all competitive grant awards issued by their Institute or Center. Therefore, the final award decision rests with NIH IC Directors. As Assistant Secretary Egorin stated in her May 2023 letter to the Committee, this high level of responsibility, coupled with appointment by the Secretary, suggests that NIH IC Directors are inferior officers of the United States. The Committee concurs with this assessment.
The June 2023 appointment affidavits purport to ratify the prior selection of the NIH IC Directors and to prospectively reappoint them. Here selection refers to actions taken by the NIH Director to identify candidates to recommend to the Secretary for appointment. The appointment affidavits state that the reappointments are only prospective. Thus, the June 2023 reappointments do not retroactively ratify the decisions that NIH IC Directors made while not lawfully appointed – those decisions occurring between December 14, 2021, and the June 2023 reappointments affidavits. A recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision also suggests that actions taken by NIH IC Directors while they were not lawfully appointed are legally invalid.
As stated above, HHS has produced no documentation showing that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Glass were reappointed as NIAID Director and Fogarty International Center Director, respectively. Both retired prior to the issuance of the June 2023 appointment affidavits. Given his central role in the COVID-19 response, the Committee is particularly concerned about the failure to reappoint Dr. Fauci. Without reappointment, Dr. Fauci continued to serve as NIAID Director until his retirement on December 31, 2022. If Dr. Fauci was never reappointed, every action he took is potentially invalid.
During that time, Dr. Fauci also served as President Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser. He regularly attended high-level meetings with Biden Administration leadership and policy makers, including the National Security Council and the intelligence community.
He was instrumental in crafting the administration’s response to the pandemic and was an outspoken advocate for intrusive public health mandates. Dr. Fauci, who remained the highest paid federal employee with an annual salary of $480,654, also made controversial decisions at NIAID during 2022. He awarded a new grant to EcoHealth Alliance despite unanswered concerns raised by us and others about possible EcoHealth double-billing USAID and NIH for the same research expenses and their failure to produce laboratory notebooks and other records from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That he could have exercised and amassed all of this authority and influence without being duly reappointed as NIAID Director demonstrates how ineffective HHS is at managing its component agencies and how little accountability currently exists.
Your failure to follow the 21st Century Cures Act and reappoint 14 of the 27 IC Directors, which represents just over 50 percent of NIH IC Directors, is unacceptable. You have not complied with your oath to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. That HHS and the NIH spent 15 months obstructing the Committee to coverup your failure only makes matters worse. HHS and the NIH should have known within days of receiving the Committee’s March 14, 2022, letter that the reappointments as legally required had not occurred. Rather than addressing the problem in consultation with the Committee, HHS and the NIH repeatedly misled the Committee, claiming “[a]ll current IC Directors who were serving as of December 13, 2016… have been reappointed to new 5-year term appointments.” This misrepresentation calls into question the veracity of other representations made to the Committee by HHS and the NIH, particularly those made by their respective legislative affairs offices.
The Committee needs to understand the consequences of your failure to reappoint NIH IC Directors on federal biomedical research and other related issues, such as potential violations of the “purpose” statute, 31 U.S.C. 1301(a), that restricts appropriated funds to their authorized purposes and the Antideficiency Act. We also intend to get a full accounting of who at HHS and the NIH decided to mislead the Committee and why. HHS and the NIH’s bad faith and failure to follow the law in this matter epitomizes why Americans no longer trust federal public health agencies. Not only did HHS and NIH ignore the law, it is also grossly unfair that Dr. Fauci – who unlawfully held his position after December 13, 2021 – could use his authority to push authoritarian mandates on the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic response. Greater accountability is needed.
Oversight is part of our constitutional responsibilities, and we expect you and your staff not to mislead the Committee but to work constructively with us and provide the requested documents and information. To assist our inquiry, pursuant to Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, please provide by July 21, 2023, the following:

1. With regard to reappointments of NIH IC Directors, what criteria is used for reappointments?
2. What was the role of the NIH Director in the reappointments since December 13, 2016? Did the NIH Director make a recommendation for the reappointment or the termination for each applicable NIH IC Director? Please provide copies of all correspondence between the NIH Director and HHS officials mentioning the appointment or reappointment of the NIH IC Directors from June 2021 through today.
3. Did the HHS Secretary have any role in the NIH human resources actions taken in December 2021? If so, please explain your apparent lack of involvement?
4. Please provide copies of all correspondence between the Office of the Secretary and HHS officials that discuss, mention or reference the attempts at appointments and reappointments of the NIH IC Directors from June 2021 to today.
5. Upon realizing that none of the 14 NIH IC Director appointments had been made as required by the Constitution, did NIH or HHS consult the Department of Justice, including its Office of Legal Counsel, White House Counsel’s Office, or outside legal counsel? If so, identify who was consulted and when.
6. Per 42 U.S.C. § 284 (a)(2) (F), “[a]ppointments and reappointments under this subsection shall be made on the basis of ability and experience as it relates to the mission of the National Institutes of Health and its components, including compliance with any legal requirement that the Secretary or Director of National Institutes of Health determines relevant.” What information is used in the reappointments to determine ability and experience as relates to the NIH mission? Who decides on what information is used? Who decides on the appointments and reappointments? Please provide documentation showing that the reappointments were made on the basis of ability and experience.
7. Per 42 U.S.C. § 284(a)(2)(F), is there any legal requirement that you as the Secretary determined relevant to the reappointment of the NIH IC directors at the NIH? If so, please list the requirement(s) and why they were determined relevant.
8. Per 42 U.S.C. § 284(a)(2)(F), is there any legal requirement that the Director of the NIH determined relevant to the reappointment of the NIH IC Directors at the NIH? If so, please list the requirement(s) and why they were determined relevant.
9. Per 42 U.S.C. § 284(a)(2)(B), NIH IC Directors must be reappointed in accordance with standards applicable to the relevant appointment mechanism. What is the relevant appointment mechanism? What are the standards applicable to the relevant appointment mechanism?
10. Any internal guidance documents (policies, procedures, etc.) that address the appointment, reappointment, assessment, and termination of NIH IC Directors.
11. All documents related to the notification of NIH IC Directors about their reappointments, including notification of their Appointment Affidavits.
12. Explain in detail the clearance and approval process for the April 5, 2022, letter from NIH Acting Principal Deputy Director Tara A. Schwetz, including its attached chart, to then Ranking Members Rodgers, Griffith, and Guthrie. As part of your answer, identify every official, employee, or appointee of the NIH, HHS, the Executive Office of the President, including but not limited to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), or the White House who drafted, reviewed, edited, or approved the letter.
13. Produce all communications and documents referring or relating to the March 14, 2022, letter from then Ranking Members McMorris Rodgers, Griffith, and Guthrie to Secretary Becerra.
14. Produce all communications and documents referring or relating to the April 5, 2022, letter from NIH Acting Principal Deputy Director Tara A. Schwetz, including its attached chart, to then Ranking Members McMorris Rodgers, Griffith, and Guthrie. For this request priority custodians include:

a. Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak;
b. Dr Tara A. Schwetz;
c. Adrienne Hallett;
d. Lauren Higgins; and
e. Jennifer Plank-Bazinet.
Please be advised that intentional misstatements or omissions in response to the above questions may constitute federal criminal violations under 18 U.S.C. §1001. In addition, the Committee believes that interviews from HHS and NIH officials and employees about this matter may be necessary.
Finally, this letter serves as a formal request to preserve all existing and future records and materials in HHS and the NIH’s possession relating to the topics addressed in this letter. You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry. This instruction includes all electronic messages sent using official and personal accounts or devices, including records created using text messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software.
If you have any questions, please contact the Majority Committee staff at (202) 225-3641. Thank you for your attention to this request.
CC: The Honorable Frank Pallone, Ranking Member
The Honorable Anna Eshoo, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Health
The Honorable Kathy Castor, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., PhD., Senior Official performing the duties of Director, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Richard Hodes, M.D., Director, National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Dr. Nora Volkow, M.D., Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Dr. Griffin Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Dr. Eric Green , Director, M.D., Ph.D., National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Dr. Gary Gibbons, M.D., Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Dr. Jon Lorsch , Ph.D., Director, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Dr. George Koob, Ph.D., Director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Dr. Walter Koroshetz, M.D., Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

 

[贵圈]

E&C 调查显示，包括福奇博士在内的 NIH 主要官员可能非法任职​

2023 年 7 月 10 日

信

信函 - 监督和调查

信-健康

新闻稿

健康

监督与调查
2021年12月至2023年6月期间NIH董事未得到适当重新任命
华盛顿特区——众议院能源和商业委员会主席 Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) 今天透露，14 名国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 官员，包括前国立过敏和传染病研究所 (NIAID) 所长安东尼·福奇 (Anthony Fauci) 博士，被未按照法律要求于 2021 年 12 月正确重新任命其职位。罗杰斯主席与健康小组委员会主席 Brett Guthrie（肯塔基州共和党）以及监督和调查小组委员会主席摩根·格里菲斯（弗吉尼亚州共和党）于 2022 年 3 月开始调查，并在致卫生部和卫生部门的信中公开披露了他们的调查结果。哥伦比亚广播公司 (CBS) 独家报道了人类服务 (HHS) 部长泽维尔·贝塞拉 (Xavier Becerra)：

众议院共和党人表示，拜登政府据称未能正确重新任命十多名美国国立卫生研究院高级领导人，这引发了人们对这些官员去年发放的数十亿美元联邦拨款的合法性的质疑。
[...]
该委员会写道：“未能重新任命上述 NIH IC 主任将危及仅 2022 年就超过 250 亿美元的联邦生物医学研究拨款的法律有效性。”
[...]
“根据定义，有权酌情授予数十亿甚至数亿研究经费的研究所所长，根据美国法律行使重大权力。因此，研究所所长是典型的‘下级官员’，”一位前高级官员说。美国卫生与公众服务部官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。
"The Secretary cannot delegate his or her constitutional authority to appoint inferior officers. It is my understanding that prior administrations of both parties zealously guarded the appointments process and took care to ensure that inferior officers were properly appointed," said the former senior official, who previously served in the Bush, Reagan and Trump administrations.
CLICK HERE to read more.
KEY EXCERPTS OF THEIR LETTER TO SEC. BECERRA:
“We write raising serious concerns about your failure to follow the law and ensure accountability of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As detailed below, it has become apparent that you, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, did not reappoint a number of Institute and Center (IC) Directors at the NIH. Your failure could have grave implications for the validity of actions taken by 14 NIH IC Directors during their unlawful tenure, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.”
[…]
“The failure to reappoint the above NIH IC Directors jeopardizes the legal validity of more than $25 billion in federal biomedical research grants made in 2022 alone.”
[…]
“Given his central role in the COVID-19 response, the Committee is particularly concerned about the failure to reappoint Dr. Fauci. Without reappointment, Dr. Fauci continued to serve as NIAID Director until his retirement on December 31, 2022. If Dr. Fauci was never reappointed, every action he took is potentially invalid.”
[…]
“我们还打算全面了解 HHS 和 NIH 的谁决定误导委员会以及原因。HHS 和 NIH 在这件事上的不诚实和不遵守法律集中体现了美国人不再信任联邦公共卫生机构的原因。HHS 和 NIH 不仅无视法律，而且在 2021 年 12 月 13 日之后非法担任职务的福奇博士在应对 COVID-19 大流行期间利用他的权力对美国人民推行独裁命令，这也是极不公平的。需要加强问责制。”
背景：

• 根据美国宪法第二条第二款，NIH IC 主任是美国的下级官员。
• 2016 年，国会在两党压倒性支持下 通过了《 21 世纪治愈法案》 。
• 《 21 世纪治愈法案》第 2033 条题为“加强国立卫生研究院的问责制”，规定了任命和重新任命 NIH IC 主任的框架。
• 具体来说，它要求 HHS 部长重新任命 NIH IC 主任，包括那些在法律颁布时任职、五年任期于 2021 年 12 月 12 日届满的人员。
• 《21 世纪治愈法案》还要求 NIH IC 主任对其研究所或中心颁发的所有竞争性资助进行“审查并做出最终决定”。这使得 NIH IC 主任成为拨款的最终决策者。

主要发现：
主席们的调查显示，贝塞拉部长未能重新任命这 14 名 NIH IC 主任，这使人们对 2021 年 12 月至 2023 年 6 月期间主任做出的任何决定的有效性提出质疑。这包括批准纳税人资助的数十亿美元拨款——包括生态健康联盟 - 以及 Fauci 博士向白宫提供的与 COVID-19 相关的指导。
信件全文：
2023 年 7 月 7 日
泽维尔·贝塞拉阁下
秘书
美国卫生与公众服务部
西南独立大道 200 号
华盛顿特区 20201
尊敬的贝塞拉部长，
我们写信对您未能遵守法律并确保对美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 数十亿美元的纳税人资金负责承担责任表示严重关切。如下文详述，很明显，您作为卫生与公众服务部 (HHS) 部长，没有重新任命 NIH 的一些研究所和中心 (IC) 主任。您的失败可能会对 14 名 NIH IC 主任在非法任职期间所采取行动的有效性产生严重影响，其中包括前国家过敏和传染病研究所 (NIAID) 主任安东尼·福奇博士。
任命 NIH IC 主任
国会于 2016 年在两党压倒性支持下通过了《21 世纪治愈法案》。根据美国宪法第二条第二款，NIH IC 主任是美国的下级官员。《21 世纪治愈法案》第 2033 条题为“加强国立卫生研究院的问责制” ，规定了任命和重新任命 NIH IC 主任的框架。具体来说，它要求 HHS 部长重新任命 NIH IC 主任，包括那些在法律颁布时任职、五年任期于 2021 年 12 月 12 日届满的人员。
卫生与公众服务部秘书传统上参与部门和运营部门的高级任命。在过去的政府中，部长批准了 NIH IC 主任的任命或重新任命。当《21 世纪治愈法案》第 2033 条成为法律时，明确了要求并设定了任期限制，部长必须于 2021 年 12 月 13 日任命和重新任命 NIH IC 董事。
正如美国国家科学院的一份报告所述：“大多数 [IC] 董事选择加入 Title 42 计划，因此实际上他们已经受到 5 年可续任条款的约束。根据该制度，卫生与公众服务部部长保留任命的批准权。因此，NIH 主任只能推荐但不能任命该机构的高级领导层。” （强调）
调查及结果
越来越明显的是，您从未在 2021 年 12 月任命或重新任命 14 名 NIH IC 主任。HHS 和 NIH 多次向委员会保证 NIH IC 主任的重新任命是有效的，但没有提供适当的支持文件。例如，在 2022 年 4 月 5 日对委员会的第一次回应中，NIH 声称“截至 2016 年 12 月 13 日任职的所有现任 IC 主任均已接受审查，并已被重新任命为新的 5 年任期”任命”，并提交了一份图表，显示 NIH 主任是重新任命 NIH IC 主任的官员，即使这是真的，也违反了法律要求。
HHS 助理部长 Melanie Egorin 在 2023 年 5 月 5 日的信函中回复了我们 2023 年 4 月 21 日的信函，正确地将 HHS 部长确定为 NIH IC 主任任命的批准官员，但没有回答委员会关于重新任命的问题。她的信中没有提供任何文件证明卫生与公众服务部部长已进行任命和重新任命。卫生与公众服务部工作人员在与委员会工作人员讨论时也拒绝确认重新任命，同时再次引用上述图表作为重新任命的证据。
2023 年 6 月 19 日，HHS 最终出具了题为“批准先前选择和未来任命：任命宣誓书”（以下简称“任命宣誓书”）并由您签署的文件，旨在表明一些有争议的 NIH IC 主任被重新任命。然而，任命宣誓书是在 2023 年 6 月 8 日和 2023 年 6 月 15 日签署的，而不是 2021 年 12 月 13 日。至关重要的是，没有为两位 NIH IC 主任福奇博士和罗杰·格拉斯博士制作任命宣誓书。 2016年12月，但在2023年6月之前退休。
根据迄今为止提供的信息，委员会认为您未能在 2021 年 12 月 13 日任期届满后重新任命下列 NIH IC 董事。相反，NIH 将重新任命作为内部事务处理，并由 NIH 人力资源部门签署主任，其名字已被 HHS 隐去。只有在多封调查信函并与委员会进行广泛讨论之后，您才在 2023 年 6 月 8 日和 15 日（即任期届满约 18 个月后）发布的一系列签署的任命宣誓书中重新任命了这些 NIH IC 主任。总共 14 名 NIH IC 现任和前任董事受到影响：
· 安东尼·福奇博士，国家过敏和传染病研究所 (NIAID)
· Richard Hodes 博士，国家老龄化研究所 (NIA)
· Nora Volkow 博士，国家药物滥用研究所 (NIDA)
· Roger Glass 博士，福格蒂国际中心 (FIC)
· Griffin Rodgers 博士，国家糖尿病、消化和肾脏疾病研究所 (NIDDK)
· Eric Green 博士，国家人类基因组研究所 (NHGRI)
· Gary Gibbons 博士，国家心肺血液研究所 (NHLBI)
· 博士。Jon Lorsch，国家普通医学科学研究所 (NIGMS)
· George Koob 博士，国家酒精滥用和酒精中毒研究所 (NIAAA)
· Walter Koroshetz 博士，国家神经疾病和中风研究所 (NINDS)
· Elisio Perez-Stable 博士，国家少数民族健康和健康差异研究所 (NIMHD)
· Patricia Brennan 博士，国家医学图书馆 (NLM)
· Joshua Gordon 博士，国家心理健康研究所 (NIMH)
· Diana Bianchi 博士，国家儿童健康与人类发展研究所 (NICHD)
未能重新任命上述 NIH IC 主任将危及仅 2022 年就超过 250 亿美元的联邦生物医学研究拨款的法律有效性。《21 世纪治愈法案》要求 NIH IC 主任对其研究所或中心颁发的所有竞争性资助进行“审查并做出最终决定”。因此，最终的授予决定权取决于 NIH IC 董事。正如助理部长 Egorin 在 2023 年 5 月致委员会的信中所说，这种高度的责任，加上部长的任命，表明 NIH IC 主任是美国的下级官员。委员会同意这一评估。
2023 年 6 月的任命宣誓书旨在批准之前选择的 NIH IC 主任，并未来重新任命他们。这里的选择是指美国国立卫生研究院院长为确定候选人并推荐给部长任命而采取的行动。任命宣誓书指出，重新任命只是预期的。因此，2023 年 6 月的重新任命不会追溯批准 NIH IC 董事在未经合法任命时做出的决定——这些决定是在 2021 年 12 月 14 日和 2023 年 6 月的重新任命宣誓书之间做出的。美国上诉法院最近的一项裁决还表明，NIH IC 董事在未经合法任命的情况下采取的行动在法律上无效。
As stated above, HHS has produced no documentation showing that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Glass were reappointed as NIAID Director and Fogarty International Center Director, respectively. Both retired prior to the issuance of the June 2023 appointment affidavits. Given his central role in the COVID-19 response, the Committee is particularly concerned about the failure to reappoint Dr. Fauci. Without reappointment, Dr. Fauci continued to serve as NIAID Director until his retirement on December 31, 2022. If Dr. Fauci was never reappointed, every action he took is potentially invalid.
During that time, Dr. Fauci also served as President Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser. He regularly attended high-level meetings with Biden Administration leadership and policy makers, including the National Security Council and the intelligence community.
He was instrumental in crafting the administration’s response to the pandemic and was an outspoken advocate for intrusive public health mandates. Dr. Fauci, who remained the highest paid federal employee with an annual salary of $480,654, also made controversial decisions at NIAID during 2022. He awarded a new grant to EcoHealth Alliance despite unanswered concerns raised by us and others about possible EcoHealth double-billing USAID and NIH for the same research expenses and their failure to produce laboratory notebooks and other records from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That he could have exercised and amassed all of this authority and influence without being duly reappointed as NIAID Director demonstrates how ineffective HHS is at managing its component agencies and how little accountability currently exists.
Your failure to follow the 21st Century Cures Act and reappoint 14 of the 27 IC Directors, which represents just over 50 percent of NIH IC Directors, is unacceptable. You have not complied with your oath to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. That HHS and the NIH spent 15 months obstructing the Committee to coverup your failure only makes matters worse. HHS and the NIH should have known within days of receiving the Committee’s March 14, 2022, letter that the reappointments as legally required had not occurred. Rather than addressing the problem in consultation with the Committee, HHS and the NIH repeatedly misled the Committee, claiming “[a]ll current IC Directors who were serving as of December 13, 2016… have been reappointed to new 5-year term appointments.” This misrepresentation calls into question the veracity of other representations made to the Committee by HHS and the NIH, particularly those made by their respective legislative affairs offices.
The Committee needs to understand the consequences of your failure to reappoint NIH IC Directors on federal biomedical research and other related issues, such as potential violations of the “purpose” statute, 31 U.S.C. 1301(a), that restricts appropriated funds to their authorized purposes and the Antideficiency Act. We also intend to get a full accounting of who at HHS and the NIH decided to mislead the Committee and why. HHS and the NIH’s bad faith and failure to follow the law in this matter epitomizes why Americans no longer trust federal public health agencies. Not only did HHS and NIH ignore the law, it is also grossly unfair that Dr. Fauci – who unlawfully held his position after December 13, 2021 – could use his authority to push authoritarian mandates on the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic response. Greater accountability is needed.
Oversight is part of our constitutional responsibilities, and we expect you and your staff not to mislead the Committee but to work constructively with us and provide the requested documents and information. To assist our inquiry, pursuant to Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, please provide by July 21, 2023, the following:

1. With regard to reappointments of NIH IC Directors, what criteria is used for reappointments?
2. What was the role of the NIH Director in the reappointments since December 13, 2016? Did the NIH Director make a recommendation for the reappointment or the termination for each applicable NIH IC Director? Please provide copies of all correspondence between the NIH Director and HHS officials mentioning the appointment or reappointment of the NIH IC Directors from June 2021 through today.
3. HHS 部长在 2021 年 12 月采取的 NIH 人力资源行动中是否发挥了任何作用？如果是这样，请解释一下您明显缺乏参与？
4. 请提供国务卿办公室与 HHS 官员之间讨论、提及或提及 2021 年 6 月至今 NIH IC 主任任命和重新任命尝试的所有信件的副本。
5. 在意识到 NIH 的 14 名 IC 主任任命均未按照宪法要求进行后，NIH 或 HHS 是否咨询了司法部，包括其法律顾问办公室、白宫法律顾问办公室或外部法律顾问？如果是，请确定咨询对象以及咨询时间。
6. 根据 42 USC § 284 (a)(2) (F)，“本款下的任命和重新任命应根据与国立卫生研究院及其组成部分的使命相关的能力和经验进行” ，包括遵守国立卫生研究院秘书或主任确定的相关法律要求。” 重新任命时使用哪些信息来确定与 NIH 任务相关的能力和经验？谁决定使用哪些信息？谁决定任命和重新任命？请提供文件证明重新任命是根据能力和经验进行的。
7. 根据 42 USC § 284(a)(2)(F)，您作为部长确定是否有任何与重新任命 NIH IC 董事相关的法律要求？如果是，请列出要求以及为什么确定这些要求相关。
8. 根据 42 USC § 284(a)(2)(F)，NIH 主任是否确定与 NIH 重新任命 NIH IC 董事相关的任何法律要求？如果是，请列出要求以及为什么确定这些要求相关。
9. 根据 42 USC § 284(a)(2)(B)，NIH IC 董事必须根据适用于相关任命机制的标准重新任命。相关的委任机制是怎样的？相关委任机制适用的标准是什么？
10. 涉及 NIH IC 主任的任命、重新任命、评估和终止的任何内部指导文件（政策、程序等）。
11. 与 NIH IC 董事重新任命通知相关的所有文件，包括其任命宣誓书的通知。
12. 详细解释 2022 年 4 月 5 日 NIH 代理首席副主任 Tara A. Schwetz 致当时高级成员 Rodgers、Griffith 和 Guthrie 的信函（包括所附图表）的审批流程。作为答案的一部分，请指出 NIH、HHS、总统执行办公室（包括但不限于科学技术政策办公室 (OSTP) 或白宫）的每一位官员、雇员或任命者，他们起草了：审阅、编辑或批准该信件。
13. 制作提及或涉及当时的高级成员 McMorris Rodgers、Griffith 和 Guthrie 于 2022 年 3 月 14 日致贝塞拉部长的信函的所有通讯和文件。
14. 制作涉及 2022 年 4 月 5 日 NIH 代理首席副主任 Tara A. Schwetz 致当时高级成员 McMorris Rodgers、Griffith 和 Guthrie 的信函（包括所附图表）的所有通讯和文件。对于此请求，优先托管人包括：

A。A.S.博士 劳伦斯·A·烟草；
b. 塔拉·施韦茨博士；
C。艾德丽安·哈利特；
d. 劳伦·希金斯；和
e. 詹妮弗·普兰克-巴齐内特。
请注意，根据 18 USC §1001 规定，对上述问题的故意错误陈述或遗漏可能构成联邦刑事犯罪。此外，委员会认为可能有必要就此事采访 HHS 和 NIH 官员及员工。
最后，这封信作为正式请求，要求保存 HHS 和 NIH 所拥有的与本信中讨论的主题相关的所有现有和未来的记录和材料。您应将本保留通知视为采取一切合理措施防止破坏或更改（无论是有意还是无意）所有文件、通信和其他信息（包括电子信息和元数据）的指示，这些文件、通信和其他信息（包括电子信息和元数据）是或可能对此作出响应的。国会调查。本指令包括使用官方和个人帐户或设备发送的所有电子消息，包括使用短信、基于电话的消息应用程序或加密软件创建的记录。
如果您有任何疑问，请致电 (202) 225-3641 联系多数委员会工作人员。感谢您对这一请求的关注。
抄送：尊敬的弗兰克·帕隆 (Frank Pallone)，高级会员
健康小组委员会高级成员 Anna Eshoo 阁下
监督和调查小组委员会高级成员 Kathy Castor 阁下
Lawrence A. Tabak，DDS，博士，履行美国国立卫生研究院院长职责的高级官员
Richard Hodes 博士，医学博士，国家老龄化研究所 (NIA) 所长
Nora Volkow 博士，医学博士，国家药物滥用研究所 (NIDA) 所长
Griffin Rodgers 博士，医学博士，MACP，国家糖尿病、消化和肾脏疾病研究所 (NIDDK) 所长
Eric Green 博士，国家人类基因组研究所 (NHGRI) 主任、医学博士、博士
Gary Gibbons 博士，医学博士，国家心肺血液研究所 (NHLBI) 主任
Jon Lorsch 博士，国家普通医学科学研究所 (NIGMS) 所长
George Koob 博士，国家酒精滥用和酒精中毒研究所 (NIAAA) 所长
Walter Koroshetz 博士，医学博士，国家神经疾病和中风研究所 (NINDS) 所长

 

[贵圈]

gop就是慢，刚开始。

 

[ottawa_tj]

 

[贵圈]

fool7在生物圈，医学圈，医药圈，有好多孙子。他多少年在那里发钱，孙子千千万。尤其是这些孙子里，还有一些年轻人，将权威主义误认为是科学。

完全是大便脑子，这些年轻人会成为一辈子的孙子的。