The Department of Human Health and Services is being reorganized by the Biden administration to create an independent branch that will lead the pandemic response in the United States.
The 1,000-person office within the HHS, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, will be turned into a separate division that will coordinate the U.S. response to health emergencies, according to anonymous officials and a memo obtained by the Washington Post.
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“In recognition of the tremendous value this team brings to the Department and the American people — and due to the increasing size and scope of what we do — I asked Secretary Becerra to consider making us an Operating Division and I am pleased to report that Secretary Becerra has made the critically important decision to elevate our team from a Staff Division to an Operating Division!” Dawn O’Connell, the current head of the ASPR, wrote to staff on Wednesday.
The reorganization now puts the ASPR on the same operational level as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.
O’Connell wrote that the responsibilities of the ASPR had grown so significantly over the past few years, particularly due to COVID-19, that it was “pushing it against the limits of a typical Staff Division that traditionally provides functional (i.e. financial, communication, policy and legislative) support to the Secretary and the Department.” The reorganization aims to allow the division to more quickly and stably mobilize resources to react to future health emergencies, as well as give them greater hiring and contracting abilities.
As part of the reorganization, the division is to be reclassified as the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, retaining the present acronym.
Publicly, the CDC was supportive of the reorganization. In a statement sent to the Washington Post, CDC spokesman Kevin Griffis said that the agency is “supportive of Assistant Secretary O’Connell’s vision for ASPR — a critical partner for us in addressing public health threats. We will continue to work closely together to advance and protect the health of the American people.”
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However, the Washington Post noted that the overhaul comes amid the Biden administration’s frustrations over bureaucratic delays from the CDC that have been blamed for delays in the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
