Senate Democrats will wait until after the Nov. 4 election to take the Obama administration to task over the federal response to Ebola outbreak.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., announced Monday she has scheduled a hearing on Ebola for Thursday, Nov. 6, two days after the pivotal midterm elections.
Democrats have mostly refrained from criticizing the White House response to initial spread of Ebola in the United States, which has so far included two healthcare workers who cared for a Liberian who entered the country with the disease.
While some Democrats have called for a ban on travel and visas from nations afflicted with the virus, the Democratic Party leadership has instead pinned the blame on a lack of adequate funding for the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.
Mikulski’s panel is in charge of green lighting federal funding and the hearing will no doubt address the budgets of the CDC and NIH.
But by waiting until after the election, Mikulski spares vulnerable Democrats from having to weigh in on — and likely criticize — the Obama administration’s Ebola response.
The post-election hearing also avoids forcing Democrats to jump off the campaign trail with only two weeks before voters cast ballots.
The committee roster includes four of the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats: Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
In the House, where Republicans are in the majority, two panels have so far taken an oversight approach and have barely addressed funding.
The House has conducted two hearings so far that have been critical of the government’s response to Ebola. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold an additional hearing on the matter on Friday.
