Representatives from international health organizations say President Trump’s move to end an emergency declaration to fund a border wall will not help cut down on the spread of diseases like avian flu, which the US has recently seen at a record pace.
“HHS has made tremendous strides in controlling or eliminating thousands of diseases,” Dr. Turgay A. Karamanlis, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Senate Committee on Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
The flu season has already been so bad that it has put strains on the CDC’s budget and caused delays in a decision by CDC director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald to declare a public health emergency for the flu, the Washington Post reported.
“CDC saw a record number of lab-confirmed influenza cases this flu season, which it announced late last month,” the newspaper reported.
“Unfortunate,” health agency representatives have said, according to the Post. “The strain of influenza strain circulating this year is less lethal than what we have seen in past years, but it still affects the elderly and the very young,” they said.
The federal government also spends a lot of money on foreign travel, including trips taken by trade representatives and government officials traveling abroad.
Trump made the emergency declaration last week and said it would allow federal agencies to redirect $8.6 billion in funding to build a wall on the southern border, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The declaration allows the Department of Defense to use money and resources earmarked for US missions or training abroad to fight the drug cartels and terrorists in the US.
Trump said he wanted to build the wall for “humanitarian and security reasons.”
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Additionally, the decision to end the emergency was expected to allow DHS to exempt money from the emergency declaration for construction of some parts of border barriers, even if they weren’t part of the new plan.
It was a decision, analysts said, that caused opposition in Congress to possible of seeing funding approved for a “big, beautiful wall.”
The California Democrat who drafted Trump’s budget plan said last week that DHS is planning to spend $643 million on interior construction and fencing in fiscal year 2019, according to the Times.
Also, there was no money appropriated for construction projects at the border in the budget plan for fiscal year 2020, the White House announced last week.
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said Friday that Trump’s emergency declaration is “whack-a-mole” and he is only creating “more drama and uncertainty.”
“Families will continue to be separated at the border and families on the other side of the border will continue to die from preventable diseases,” Lowey said, referring to the recent emergency declaration by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
On Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee heard testimony about bird flu, which bird farmers and veterinarians say are being spread to humans by bird owners who have kept them in captivity.
Some members of Congress have long suspected that avian flu comes from the United States, and it was found in the US last September in a slaughterhouse.