Can’t Do Anything Right: RFK’s ACIP Charter Changes Yanked For Not Following Procedure
from the rake-after-rake-after-rake dept
I’m starting to wonder if RFK Jr. can do anything right at all. After the courts put an injunction on Kennedy’s overhaul of the CDC’s ACIP panel on vaccines, as well as pretty much all of their recommendations since it was rebuilt on a foundation of anti-vaxxers, the government sprung into action to try to let Kennedy keep fucking with vaccines in America. The reasoning by the court for the injunction was a process oriented one: Kennedy’s overhaul of ACIP violated the American Procedures Act. By simply hand-picking unqualified sycophants to ACIP, he didn’t follow procedural law. The Trump administration eventually appealed the ruling, which is still pending hearings. On his end, Kennedy decided to amend the ACIP charter to try to route around some of the procedural violations of the APA that got him in trouble the first time.
But it turns out he fucked that up, too. His amended ACIP charter has now been withdrawn for once again not following proper procedure.
A revised charter document for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s influential vaccine advisory committee has been withdrawn by the Health Department over an administrative error, according to a notice published in the Federal Register Tuesday.
While the Health Department is working to appeal the injunction, Kennedy attempted to circumvent the judge’s ruling on the ACIP members by altering the committee’s charter to, among other things, allow for people without expertise in immunizations and public health to be members.
But, for now, that effort, too, has been thwarted. According to the notice on Tuesday, the new charter has been withdrawn for not following a federal requirement on public notification.
The law on the matter is remarkably clear. In order to reestablish a discretionary advisory committee, for which ACIP qualifies, the Secretary of the agency must provide a written statement that the committee is being formed in the public interest, establish what that public interest actually is, and then publish a public notice to the Federal Register so that the people can understand the action that is being taken.
Kennedy didn’t do any of that. He rewrote the governing charter for his remade version of ACIP and just tried to make it a thing without following any of those rules. He just plain fucked it up.
Which isn’t to suggest that Kennedy definitely won’t try to do this all again with an actual attempt to follow procedural law. I am having trouble imagining a world in which he doesn’t do that, actually. But given his apparent desire to step on every last rake he can find, it’s a wonder to me that the Trump administration doesn’t simply want to put someone more capable in charge of HHS.
Filed Under: acip, anti-vaxxers, cdc, rfk jr., vaccines
Comments on “Can’t Do Anything Right: RFK’s ACIP Charter Changes Yanked For Not Following Procedure”
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
A district court making shit up is not, in fact, an indication of “can’t do anything right”.
Re:
You making shit up is not, in fact, a citation that proves anything.
Re:
A district court didn’t make this “shit” up, Congress did, they voted to approve it it, and it was then signed into law by the President.
And it’s pretty simple, it says officials can’t just scribble something in crayon without telling people and poof, it’s an enforceable law., you actually have to publish it, so people know what the law is.
So, it’s been around over 50 years, it’s not that hard to understand, and if you can’t follow it, then it is a rather good indication that either you’re incapable, or unwilling to do anything right.
Re: Re:
It is slightly more complex. Basically congress has an open invitation for scientifically based agencies to be able to change the administration of the law based on new evidence since congress didn’t have time for keeping up with all scientific work in all fields.
Congress can still say “On god, RFK is right” and change it by law. There would be no issues at all with that approach.
But RFK is insisting on using the administrative approach to get around congress, presumably since they won’t take his word to the bank.
Court to RFK Jr. “Uh, you can’t do that.”
RFK Jr. “Hold my beer.”
American Procedures Act
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/administrative_procedure_act
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) is a federal act that governs the procedures of administrative law. The APA is codified in 5 U.S.C. §§ 551–559.
Re:
There are several things going on here, at once, and the APA is not really implicated here, there’s another law in play, the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that this more clearly violates.
So, so far we’ve had ..
1- The Spawn of Kyuss the the fire the entire ACIP
2- Spawn of Kyuss stock the ACIP with quacks
3- The new quacks at ACIP do quack things
Then the court stepped in and said.. Nope.
Now, In that list, only (3), violated, the APA, (1) and (2) violated FACA, that requires viewpoint balance on any Federal Advisory Committee.
So, so far The Spawn of Kyuss has done two things in reaction, the first is that he said “well this is just unenforceable CDC “advice” , and I run the CDC, so I can just insert my own personal bullshit quackery regardlessof what ACIP says” – this would probably runs afoul of the APA.
The second thing he did was to rewrite the charter, to let him put quacks on the panel by loosening up who’s qualified to be on the panel- he’s probably allowed to do that, if he pushes the papers correctly. However, even if he does so, the FACA’s requirements for balanced viewpoints are still there, and stocking it with his pet quacks is going cause problems there.
It’s the “Administrative Procedure [singular] Act”
EOM
Presidential material
I don’t really see how this differs from how Trump himself and his administration in general are operating.
They are all practiced operating in the time span courts need to overturn illegal acts. It is like running as the equivalent of constant falling over is the fastest way to get from one place to another (and the first manner of upright movement toddlers master).
You just don’t have to get the courts drag you down. It is kind of like operating a hydrofoil.
All the pretenses of legality need not hold up under scrutiny. They only need to require scrutiny. Add a bit of bluster, and the courts will take time to dot their Is and cross their Ts, and by the time they are finished, there is already a long string of new bullshit.
And that is even before the Supreme Court steps in and calls Fair.
Following the requirements of FACA, to publish the charter is only half of it, FACA also mandates that any advisory commitee have a balance of viewpoints, that’s going to be a bigger thorn in the Spawn Of Kyuss’s side than dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on his charter revisions.
Is it a wonder to you, really? Has the administration shown ANY interest in putting anyone “more capable” in charge of any cabinet department? I am asking sincerely for a counterexample, because it sure seems like competence and dedication to public service are pretty low on the list of priorities.
Re:
If you listen to what certain minimalist government sleep tanks were sleeping back in 2012 and forth, anyone can run any part of government so you don’t need to staff it and especially not with subject matter experts! Giving them libtard professor-types that know stuff quarter in the regime is sacrilege!
Don't confuse willful violation with incompetence
RFK Jr. has a huge agency and staff. This isn’t incompetence – this is on purpose. They knew they did it wrong – they just don’t care.
The note RFJ Jr. and the entire Orange Nero administration are trying to strike here isn’t ‘oopsie, got that wrong!’ its ‘TRY AND STOP US’. The Administrative Procedure Act stops or slows them down – so they are trying to ignore it.
They want top-down style rule, with no pesky guardrails, no public review, and no recourse for anyone opposing their will. They attack the rule of law to consolidate power.
We need to stop characterizing things like this as incompetence – its not its malice. RFK Jr. may be a giant, addled idiot, but the entire legal and professional staff of the agency is not.
We need to start characterizing these kinds of actions for what they are – malicious attempts to skirt or bypass the law.