Democratic lawmakers on the House’s Oversight Committee are asking the Department of Health and Human Services for information about what it’s doing to prevent the spread of bird flu among agricultural workers, who are at highest risk of exposure.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking member, and Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the national security and border subcommittee, are asking HHS to “double down” on its efforts to engage with undocumented agricultural workers. It’s a demographic of workers who some Democratic lawmakers and public health experts have said will be less likely to seek testing and health care after bird flu exposure, given President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportation.
“We are deeply concerned that the present political environment, particularly rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, may exacerbate barriers to care and increase the threat to public health,” the lawmakers said in a letter sent to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Friday, first obtained by NOTUS. “These tensions present risks to vulnerable essential workers, to the agricultural supply chain, and to the general public.”