Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy reintroduced legislation Friday to take a sledgehammer to the federal health agency Dr. Anthony Fauci led for nearly four decades.
Roy’s NIH Reform Act would reorganize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by abolishing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and splitting the agency into three separate research entities, according to background on the bill shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The NIAID operates under the umbrella of the NIH and has previously funded high-risk gain-of-function research, some of which was exported to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The bill is modeled on steps Congress took to rein in the FBI following J. Edgar Hoover’s decades-long tenure and would prevent another bureaucrat like Fauci from operating a federal health agency without rigorous congressional oversight. The directors of each newly-created institute would be appointed by the president, subject to Senate confirmation and restricted to two five-year terms, according to background information on the bill.
Fauci, the highest paid official in the federal government before his retirement, was never confirmed by the Senate nor term-limited, and thus spent 38 years in the role from 1984 to 2022. The ex-bureaucrat made more than $480,000 per year in 2022. Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized Fauci’s leadership over NIAID for the public health agency’s overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to Fauci on his way out the door. Though the former bureaucrat is exempt from prosecution at the federal level, a group of 17 state attorneys general, led by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, has urged GOP congressional leaders to probe whether Fauci has violated any state laws, the DCNF first reported.
“From the earliest days of the pandemic, public health bureaucrats proved themselves far more adept at ruining lives than saving them,” Roy, a vocal critic of Fauci pushing mandatory vaccinations and COVID-19 lockdowns, told the DCNF. “Never again should a single, unaccountable government employee, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, wield unchecked power and influence over the lives of the American people.”
“Breaking up Dr. Fauci’s taxpayer funded bully pulpit into three separate agencies — and requiring Senate confirmation for all their future directors — is one of many actions necessary to allow the American people to check government power and hold public health agencies accountable,” Roy continued.
“In the aftermath of the damage done by pandemic-era mandates and restrictions, Congress must enact the NIH Reform Act to ensure that one official cannot claim the unquestioned authority to dictate the governmental responses to public health questions,” a release for the bill shared with the DCNF said. “This bill aligns with the MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] movement to ensure that our public health agencies are accountable to the people.”
Republican Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith is a cosponsor of the legislation. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is introducing companion legislation in the Senate.
Roy introduced the legislation during the last Congress in March 2023, but the legislation failed to pass the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The NIAID did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
