HHS IG office is probing CDC, FDA efforts to test for COVID-19

A government watchdog who angered President Trump said Tuesday the Health and Human Services Department inspector general is probing the administration’s role in approving, producing and distributing test kits for the coronavirus, after early stutter steps were blamed for allowing the disease to spread uncontrollably.

Christi A. Grimm, principal HHS deputy inspector general, said the review will focus on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and extend to the Food and Drug Administration’s role in approving test kits on the market.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Democrat, said lives were lost because of early mistakes in getting a testing system off the ground, including the well-documented failure of a CDC test in February.

“It seems to me that’s got to be a primary focus on your work,” he said.

Ms. Grimm said the IG team is looking at over a dozen topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic and has dozens of additional topics in development, citing the scope of the crisis.

“Nearly 100,000 people have died, many more are seriously ill and the effects are being felt in every corner of our country,” she told the House Oversight Committee.

She said the IG’s office is already looking at whether billions in recent hospital-relief payments were disbursed correctly.

Ms. Grimm rose to prominence after her office released a report that found hospitals reported significant shortages of coronavirus-fighting equipment from March 23 to March 27.

The report sparked a furious response from Mr. Trump, who slammed Ms. Grimm as an Obama-er holdover despite working in government since the Clinton administration.

“Unfortunately, President Trump personally attacked Ms. Grimm and for no valid reason,” committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney said.

The chairwoman accused Mr. Trump of wanting to act like everything was fine and there were no medical or testing shortages.

“Of course we all know that was wrong,” Ms. Maloney said.
Republicans faulted the methodology of the report that surveyed hundreds of hospitals, calling it “biased.”

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, also said he didn’t understand why Democrats held a briefing on an old report, since so much has changed.

Ms. Grimm said HHS did take steps to rectify some of the issues raised in the report. But she also defended her work, saying it offered “quick and reliable data from the ground.”

“We did find shortages of protective equipment,” she said. “It also shared practical strategies hospitals reported to us that other hospitals could use in their responses.”

Mr. Trump moved this month to knock Ms. Grimm out of the top spot at the HHS IG office, where she was serving in an acting capacity.

He nominated Jason Weida, an assistant United States attorney in Boston, to serve as the permanent inspector general while Ms. Grimm retains her role as principal deputy.

Democrats argued the move was part of a troubling pattern of firings that threaten a system of oversight set up to keep the executive branch in check after Watergate.

Mr. Trump recently moved to fire State Department inspector general Steve Linick and in early April announced the firing of Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community.

Mr. Atkinson had fast-tracked a whistleblower complaint last year that kick-started a process leading to Mr. Trump’s impeachment.

Mr. Trump last month also removed former acting Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine from his post. Mr. Fine had also been tapped to lead a committee charged with overseeing trillions of dollars in federal coronavirus rescue spending.

Ms. Maloney touted legislation she offered to strengthen the independence of IGs by requiring documents to justify firings, which must be for “good cause.”
“It is our responsibility to protect the IGs from political interference,” Ms. Maloney said.

Republican members complained that Ms. Maloney hasn’t called Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, to testify on abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).