House Republicans ask HHS Secretary to prove he lawfully appointed NIAID director

After learning last month that top NIH officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, may have been appointed to their positions unlawfully, House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra Wednesday asking him to provide evidence that he lawfully appointed his new NIAID director.

"We write today because we are concerned that you may be continuing on an unconstitutional appointment process in an effort to avoid accountability for your previous failure to properly reappoint the 14 IC Directors in December 2021," the letter from House Republicans Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Brett Guthrie, and H. Morgan Griffith to Becerra reads. "Please provide a copy of the appointment document for Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo to be the Director of NIAID..."

According to a law enacted in 2016, the HHS Secretary is required to reappoint NIH Institute and Center Directors every five years, but he seemingly failed to do so for those whose terms would have expired in 2021.

This has led to further accusations that health officials illegally exercised power, including when they approved $26 billion in taxpayer-funded grants.

"Our concerns that the reappointments never occurred have only grown more acute following your testimony before the Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations," the August 9 letter continues, referring to testimony in which Becerra was unable to answer if proof of reappointments existed.

"The failure to appoint this number of inferior officers of the United States is unprecedented," the House Republicans said in the joint letter.

Becerra was given until August 23 to provide the requested documentation.

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