Senators Johnson, Paul, Lankford, Scott and Hawley Demand Chairman Peters Hold Biden Administration Accountable, Serve Subpoenas to Get Answers for the American People

Press Release

On Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote a letter to Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) regarding letters sent to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in which they invoked a statute requiring those agencies to respond to the requests. To date, the agencies have refused to comply with requests despite the statutory obligations to do so. The senators are demanding Chairman Peters hold the Biden administration accountable and show support for Congress' right to information. They request he initiate proceedings to serve subpoenas to compel compliance from the agencies.

In a May 19 letter, the senators requested all documents relating to coordination between the CDC, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association in drafting federal school reopening guidance. In the June 11 letter, the senators requested the HHS and the NIH produce unredacted copies of Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails.

"These agencies' apparent contempt for legitimate congressional oversight and the law is unacceptable," the senators wrote to Chairman Peters. "This administration cannot be allowed to ignore congressional oversight nor determine what information is fit for Congress' review. We must ensure that all federal agencies are fully transparent and responsive to this Committee's requests, particularly when the members invoke 5 U.S.C. § 2954. We call on you to stand up for this Committee's and Congress' constitutional and statutory authority and respectfully request that you initiate proceedings to serve subpoenas to HHS, CDC, and NIH to compel compliance with our lawful demands stated in our May and June letters."

Further, on July 27, 2021, the HHS sent what it claimed was the same heavily redacted documents it already released through the FOIA process. However, after an initial review of the Fauci documents, it appears that the HHS may have forgotten to apply at least one FOIA redaction to a paragraph in an email. In the public FOIA document, the HHS redacted an entire paragraph in Peter Daszak's email, claiming that it contains records related to an open law enforcement investigation.

However, in the documents the HHS produced, the paragraph was unredacted, exposing the information the HHS previously hid from the American people. The paragraph does not appear to contain any information related to an open law enforcement investigation. The redaction calls into question the HHS's redaction process not only for FOIA requests from the public but also for documents produced to Congress.

A copy of the letter can be found here and below.

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