Georgia is privileged to host “the world’s preeminent epidemiological agency,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) told the Rotary Club of Atlanta of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“All of us, regardless of our political stripes, are proud of the CDC,” Ossoff said. “I grew up full of pride at this amazing organization, which helped to eradicate smallpox, and containing so many global operations is based here in our home state. The CDC has been under a destructive and inexplicable and unjustified, sustained political attack now and for many, many months.”
Several leaders in the Georgia global health sector were present for Ossoff’s Rotary talk on Aug. 11, including Judy Monroe, president of the CDC Foundation; Patrick O’Carroll, CEO of the Task Force for Global Health; and Paige Alexander, president of the Carter Center.
“I was frankly outraged when the budget request from the White House suggested defunding more than half of the CDC’s activities altogether,” said Ossoff, adding that funding for the National Institute of Health also was under attack. “If we destroy our public health infrastructure and health research in the United States, we will pay for it for decades.”
Ossoff said he worked with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass the Senate’s 2026 fiscal year budget to continue funding the CDC at its current level. But he added the administration likely will continue to cut the CDC’s funding. Ossoff said he would continue to work with his Republican colleagues in a bipartisan manner.
The same is true when it comes to the administration’s desire to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, which Ossoff called a “radical” proposal that would be “self-destructive” to the nation.
“Public pressure works,” said Ossoff, noting major victories that protected funding for a scholarship program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as getting funding restored for after-school programs across the state.
“Here in Georgia and across the country, we’ve built public opposition to this, and they backed off, so public pressure can still be effective,” Ossoff said about the administration’s efforts to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. But he is not confident Senate Republicans are going to push back against those efforts.
“What I can tell you is that it’s deeply unpopular with the American public,” Ossoff said. “It’s deeply unpopular with school board leaders and superintendents of schools across the state of Georgia.”
Ossoff, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it’s important for Georgians to speak up for the CDC and push back against policies that would hurt the state.
“I also encourage all of us to raise our voices. You know, there is not safety in keeping your head down,” Ossoff said. “There are leaders in every sector of the economy, every part of the nonprofit world and academia who have come into my office for the last five or six months and tell me that they’re terrified, but they’re not going to say anything, because they don’t want a target on their back.”
Ossoff said they are “afraid of retribution from their own government to speak their mind,” which “should send a chill down all of our spines.”
Universities are also under attack, including research institutions.
“America’s leadership in research and development is a pillar of American power since World War II,” Ossoff said. “This is why we have led the world in consistently beating closed and authoritarian societies in research and development and pushing the technological frontier.”
Gutting research is “an act of immense national self-harm,” which will hurt the country for decades. “Once you shut down a clinical trial, once you lose those researchers, you can’t just turn all this back on again,” Ossoff said.
Rod Edmond asked Ossoff about the administration’s decision to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces to police American cities, such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“This is not popular in the military,” Ossoff said. “That is not why young men and women sign up to serve and defend the United States. The purpose of the Armed Forces is to defend the country from our foreign enemies.”
Instead, Ossoff said the president has made it clear that “he admires and envies the trappings and the powers of authoritarian leaders around the world.”
Ossoff said he hoped Rotarians considered him to be judicious, thoughtful, measured and fact-based.
“This situation is untenable. This is not just the ordinary disagreements over public policy that tend to define the limits of American political debate,” Ossoff said. “Fear and intimidation are being used to chill and suppress dissent.”
In a personal moment, Edmond (the son-in-law of the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson) asked Ossoff about a photo of Ossoff as a young boy with Jackson at what appeared to be a political rally.
Ossoff explained that he grew up in Inman Park, a civically engaged neighborhood that fought expressways dissecting their communities, which Jackson also opposed. He was always fascinated by history and the civil rights movement.
In the question-and-answer session with Rotarians, Ossoff was asked about the Texas legislature’s attempt to gerrymander congressional seats in favor of Republicans.
Ossoff explained that there was an attempt three years ago to advance legislation to prohibit partisan gerrymandering for U.S. House districts, but the bill was filibustered on the floor of the Senate.
“Gerrymandering is one of the key drivers of extremism and polarization in American politics, because most members of Congress just about can’t lose their general election,” Ossoff said. “Most congressional districts are so heavily gerrymandered that the primary is the only election that matters, which means that candidates and elected officials don’t have to respond to a diverse political constituency and find opportunities to work together in the center, to build coalitions. Instead, they just have to cater to the most extreme voices in their own parties.”
Patrick O’Carroll of the Task Force for Global Health thanked Ossoff for defending the CDC, where he used to work. “It is an incredibly disparaging time,” O’Carroll said. “I just want to tell you how much it means to my colleagues at the CDC, the way you’ve been standing up for the agency.”
Agnes Scott President Lee Zak thanked Ossoff for his support of higher education. She said she is concerned about the potential “brain drain” of people not coming to Atlanta and the United States because they’re unable to get visas.
“I think you need to use your voices as leaders in academia and business to sound the alarm,” Ossoff said. “I want to hear from the Chambers of Commerce on the danger posed to America’s long-term economic competitiveness when we are deterring talented, highly qualified people who want to come and study here, start businesses here, and help American companies innovate in the world.”
David Leiter, a managing partner with KPMG, asked about trade and the executive orders to impose tariffs on foreign countries.
“Tariffs are a tool in our economic policy toolbox that, when they are judiciously used, can be useful,” Ossoff said. “What we’re seeing right now, more than anything, is that the level of uncertainty that is being imposed on markets and investors and corporate boards is a major headwind for the U.S. economy because businesses cannot plan how to structure their supply chains with any confidence.”
Ossoff then raised the issue of the national debt.
“The country faces a long-term fiscal problem, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “The math doesn’t work when you go out a couple decades. Our capacity to borrow and spend is not unlimited.”
The last question came from Paige Alexander of the Carter Center, who attended the same synagogue as Ossoff when she was growing up. She asked him about his controversial vote to limit the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel.
Ossoff said that no foreign power, even a close ally, is entitled to U.S. arms at any time.
“It is entirely appropriate for the United States to use the leverage that comes with the provision of arms in order to shape the policy of a foreign government,” Ossoff said. “When you look at the appalling extent of civilian harm and destruction and hunger, for example, ongoing in that territory, it is clear to me, and it’s been clear to me for quite some time, that it is neither consistent with America’s national security interests nor our values to simply acquiesce to that policy without any objection.
“Israel remains a vital U.S. ally. We continue to support Israel’s national security and their self-defense,” Ossoff continued. “It is also okay to object to certain elements of an ally’s policy.”
Leave a comment