Report: CDC wastes millions
Agency with big budget 'can veer off track,' senator says
By Alison Young
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 12, 2007
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells Congress it needs more money, a new report contends that the agency has wasted millions of dollars, including on lavish new buildings in Atlanta.
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says the CDC has used taxpayer money in questionable ways, including:
> Spending $1.7 million, including some antiterrorism funds, on a Hollywood liaison program to get health messages into TV shows and movies.
> Equipping new buildings on Clifton Road with extravagant finishes, including a $200,000 fitness center, a giant wall of plasma screen TVs in the visitor center and a sculpture of a woman made out of vegetables.
> Spending tens of millions of dollars on programs ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention to bioterrorism preparation without adequate oversight.
CDC does important work, Coburn said Monday in a statement. "Yet, like most agencies, it offers many examples of how an agency with a large budget can veer off track in prioritizing its funds."
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the agency has received a copy.
"We share Sen. Coburn's commitment to accountability, and we strive day in and day out to fulfill our commitment to the American taxpayer and to be diligent stewards," he said. The CDC has an annual budget of more than $8 billion. Skinner said CDC officials have provided "exhaustive" information to Coburn.
Coburn, a medical doctor, is the ranking Republican on a Senate financial management subcommittee.. He recently was in the news for blocking bills to honor Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring."
Coburn's report includes many items that have been previously reported in news articles, including the use of CDC grant money in 2002 to hire a porn star to appear at a safe-sex conference.
But the report provides new details about the $1 billion in ongoing construction at the CDC's Clifton Road headquarters. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sought information about construction costs under the Freedom of Information Act in October and January, but the CDC has not yet released it.
According to Coburn's report, the CDC spent $106 million on its new Tom Harkin Global Communications Center on the Clifton Road campus, which includes a visitor center with a video wall that is 70 feet tall by 25 feet wide. It houses a new $20 million communications studio.
The new headquarters cost $109.8 million, and includes nearly $10 million in furniture and $6 million in audio/visual systems, monitors and teleconferencing equipment, the report says. A fitness center has more than $200,000 in equipment, including zero-gravity chairs in a light-therapy room, a 12-bike cycling room with images of the Tour de France flashing on the walls, two dry-heat saunas and a $70,000 sound system.
To read the full Coburn report, go to coburn.senate.gov/ffm/.
Article link: http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2007/06/12/meshcdc0612a.html
Senator Tom Coburn
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
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