Sen. Cruz Introduces Bill to Require Senate Confirmation of Appointed CDC Director
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today introduced the ACCORD Act, or the Accountability for the CDC, improving Congressional Oversight, and Ratification of its Director Act. This legislation would require any Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who was appointed prior to January 20, 2025 to obtain full Senate confirmation to remain in the post beyond January 2025.
About the bill, Sen. Cruz said, “Acting CDC Director Mandy Cohen was appointed by President Biden without any congressional oversight. Cohen has proven herself to be unfit for the role, regularly exercising poor judgment, partaking in government overreach, and instituting tyrannical mandates to shut down North Carolina—in her former capacity as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services—during the pandemic. She should be evaluated by the full Senate before she begins to implement the same extremist policies nationally.”
BACKGROUND:
President Biden appointed former North Carolina healthcare secretary Mandy Cohen to serve as CDC director. Sen. Cruz and members of the North Carolina congressional delegation wrote a letter earlier this year labeling Cohen “unfit for the position” due to her role in shutting down North Carolina during the Covid-19 pandemic, and forcing indoor masking of schoolchildren.
Sen. Cruz has led the fight against government overreach due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Prior to Cohen’s appointment, Sen. Cruz introduced a bill to move up the date by which the position of Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) becomes a Senate-approved position.
- In 2020, when 1.4 million Texans lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sen. Cruz fought for true economic recovery, introducing comprehensive legislation to restart the economy, get Americans back to work, and put our kids back in school.
- He led the fight against unlawful Covid-19 mandates by introducing the first and most sweeping bill to prohibit federal vaccine mandates, tracking persons based on vaccination status and denying essential liberties based on vaccine status. In addition, his proposal would provide all employees with protections against employment-based vaccine mandates by extending current civil rights protections.
- During the pandemic, Sen Cruz led the fight for religious exemptions to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
- Sen. Cruz has led his colleagues on amicus briefs against vaccine mandates on Navy SEALs and federal employees.
- Sen. Cruz’s legislative language to repeal the Department of Defense’s vaccine mandate was included in the FY23 NDAA.
- Sen. Cruz previously sponsored Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-Kansas) NDAA amendment to protect service members who refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Sen. Cruz previously offered the vaccine exemption and reporting requirements as amendments to the FY2022 NDAA.
- Sen. Cruz fought for his AMERICANS Act, which would reinstate servicemen and women who had been fired over the military’s vaccine mandate, if they so choose. Senate Democrats blocked the addition of this bill’s language as an amendment to this year’s NDAA.
- Sen. Cruz supported legislation to stop President Biden’s vaccine mandate on private employees under the Congressional Review Act, introduced the Parental Rights Protection Act to prohibit the federal government and any entity that receives federal funding from requiring Covid-19 vaccines for minors, and introduced legislation to end the Biden administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask mandate for all Americans, regardless of vaccination status.
- Sen. Cruz has long been a champion of protecting students from ineffective and unfair Covid-19 vaccine mandates. He most recently sponsored a bill to combat the implementation of a racist coronavirus vaccination mandate in D.C. schools.
- Sen. Cruz worked to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the bill here.
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