Donald Trump has nominated a former chemistry industry executive to the top role protecting consumers—yeah, right—and now we find out that this very same person also played a role in blocking CDC guidelines on reopening safely. Sen. Maria Cantwell, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, is asking questions about the role Nancy Beck played in keeping those guidelines from the public, the Associated Press reports.
Beck, the nominee for head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is currently in the White House on detail for the Office of Management and Budget, and in that role, she was the point person between the White House and CDC as officials at the latter tried to get the reopening guidelines approved, only to be told they’d “never see the light of day.”
The Associated Press has obtained emails showing that as the CDC’s chief of staff pressed to have the guidelines reviewed and approved, Beck responded repeatedly stalling, while a colleague responded to say that the White House Principal’s Committee had “given strict and explicit direction that these documents are not yet cleared and cannot go out as of right now—this includes related press statements or other communications that may preview content or timing of guidances.”
Cantwell wrote a letter suggesting that the incident raised “serious questions about whether you believe in preserving and respecting the scientific and professional integrity of scientists and health professionals that work at agencies like the CDC and the CPSC.”
It’s nothing more than you’d expect from someone who previously lobbied against protecting people from toxins if those toxins were profitable to the chemicals industry, then went to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, where she worked to weaken or block Obama-era protections on things like asbestos.