Rogers and Lowey Request Details on Administration's Ebola Response
Congressman Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) today sent the following letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shaun Donovan and National Security Advisor Susan Rice requesting details on the Administration's response to the emerging public health crisis in Africa:
Dear Ambassador Rice and Director Donovan:
The President has announced that the United States Government has initiated a government–wide response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to address this serious public health event that is killing thousands of victims, expanding exponentially, and could disrupt the functioning and governance of the affected countries.
The Committee is prepared to respond and assist in these efforts as necessary. We recognize that we need to act quickly to avoid a potential global health security crisis.
With the epidemic worsening, the Committee has been asked to support the significant resourcing of this effort. Funding in excess of $1 billion from four agencies (the Department of Health and Human Services [specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority]; the Department of Defense; the Agency for International Development; and the Department of State), has been proposed for expenditure both from existing funds and as supplemental funds to combat the epidemic, and future funding needs are still to be determined.
However, our initial review of the proposals has raised questions about the coordination and consistency among these agencies.
At a recent Congressional staff briefing held on September 19, the discussion led to further questions about the strategy and focus of the response. It would be helpful if you would respond to the following overarching questions, including:
what is the overall public health response required to bring the epidemic under control, and what is the overall strategy and implementation plan to address it ;
- what is the primary role of the U.S. in response to the overall epidemic;
- how is the U.S. government response effort being structured and coordinated, in Washington and in the field;
- what are the actions necessary to monitor and protect the health of U.S. personnel deployed to West Africa;
- what partners is the U.S. working with, both domestically and internationally,
- what resources have each of these partners pledged to date and what resources have been provided, including from governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector;
- how is the United Nations coordinating the effort and identifying resources, both within the United Nations system and from other sources, to undertake such coordination; and
- how will the U.S. response be coordinated with and complement the international effort?
In addition, to fulfill the Committee’s oversight role and to ensure that we are fully prepared to act on resource requests, we request that the following government-wide reporting be initiated as soon as possible, or continued, as appropriate, to include all response efforts, including vaccine and treatment research and development:
- a U.S. government-wide Ebola response plan, to include a timeline and monthly targets for key indicators the U.S. will monitor to measure the effectiveness of its response plan (updated periodically, as needed);
- a weekly report to include how each agency is contributing to and funding the U.S. response plan and, when available, the United Nations’ international response plan; and
- a detailed monthly cost report to include total government-wide costs by agency for each activity.
We would appreciate your prompt response to these requests by October 17. Understanding the objectives and being informed of how the funds are being put to use will help us in working with you to assure the resources are available in the most effective manner to bring the epidemic under control.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Harold Rogers, Chairman
Nita Lowey, Ranking Member