HHS Says Employees Misconstrued Guidelines For Budget Writing As A Banned List Of Words
The agency has come under fire for providing employees with words that should be avoided as they prepare for the Fiscal Year 2019 budget process. Many took it as a banning the words that included "vulnerable" and "diversity." But the Department of Health and Human Services says that is not the case.
Health and Human Services Department officials confirmed Monday that they had singled out a handful of words that should be avoided in the upcoming budget process, but said they had not blocked employees from using them outright. A department spokesman further said that the guidance came from within HHS, not from the Office of Management and Budget. (Eilperin and Sun, 12/18)
Democrats in the House and Senate are demanding answers from the Trump administration after a report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was banned from using some words and phrases in official documents. On Friday, The Washington Post reported that senior CDC officials in charge of the budget told the agency鈥檚 policy analysts of a list of words they shouldn鈥檛 use in documents they are preparing for next year鈥檚 budget. The banned terms included 鈥渇etus,鈥 鈥渢ransgender鈥 and 鈥渟cience-based.鈥 (Weixel and Roubein, 12/18)
In other news from the Health and Human Services Department聽鈥
HHS is defending its decision to withhold more than 10,000 public comments on a proposal that could affect access to abortion and care for transgender patients. 鈥淭here has been a voluminous response to the [request for information], and the center鈥檚 team is working through a review of the submissions,鈥 Shannon Royce, who leads the agency鈥檚 Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is overseeing the proposal, said in a statement on Monday night. (Diamond, 12/18)
