Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff criticized Project 2025 architect and current Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought during a Senate appropriations hearing for the Trump administration's austere spending cuts that are currently focused on slashing the budget and workforce of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Ossoff pressed Russell Vought on the administration’s decision to cut the agency’s budget by nearly half and on the loss of roughly 25% of its workforce.
Vought repeatedly deflected, first pivoting to criticize the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response and then claiming he lacked the necessary information to respond, saying he didn’t “have the facts” and therefore couldn’t directly address Ossoff’s question.
A visibly annoyed Ossoff cut him off immediately:
"Answer the question: Does your budget request seek to cut by more than half the CDC budget?"
Vought could only utter that the CDC had been "incompetent" and did not fulfill its duties during the pandemic, but Ossoff replied that Vought ought to visit the agency's headquarters to understand how "essential" its employees are for public health nationwide.
Vought agreed, to which Ossoff said:
“Good, we’ll make that happen, because you are destroying this institution and whatever criticism you have about their past performance, they are essential to public health and epidemiological defense in the United States. You’re crushing morale, you’re crushing capability, and you’re destroying my constituents’ lives.”
"I am grateful for the commitment you've made to come to Georgia and visit the CDC and sit down with those employees. Thank you."
But when Vought claimed that there had been plans to "reform" the CDC since the Biden administration, Ossoff was firm:
“I don’t want to hear about the Biden administration; you’re here on behalf of the Trump administration."
You can watch their exchange in the video below.
Vought was criticized and people praised Ossoff's controlled response after footage of the exchange went viral.
Last month, the Trump administration unveiled a budget proposal that would slash the CDC's funding by nearly half, reducing its budget from $9.2 billion in 2024 to roughly $4 billion.
Among the most striking changes was the proposed elimination of the agency’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion—the CDC’s largest division—just weeks after the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) laid off 2,400 CDC employees.
The budget blueprint made no mention of the $1.2 billion Prevention and Public Health Fund, raising the possibility that the real cuts could be even deeper.
Additional reductions would target injury prevention efforts, including firearm-related injuries, HIV monitoring and prevention, and emergency preparedness grants for states. Public health officials across the country expressed alarm at the scale and scope of the proposed changes.
