‘We’re going to make it a lot simpler for folks to to get the knowledge,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated.
The Division of Well being and Human Companies plans to revamp its responses to public data requests to make it simpler for folks to acquire the knowledge they search, in keeping with Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We’re going to attempt to submit as a lot as we are able to. We’re going to begin a web site with all former FOIA requests and the paperwork that have been produced so folks don’t need to do it many times. And we’re going to attempt to get as shut as we are able to to whole transparency on this company.”
Kennedy’s division contains 15 divisions, together with the CDC, the Meals and Drug Administration, and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
FOIA, a federal legislation, requires businesses to reply to requests looking for data corresponding to emails. The data should finally be produced, with some exceptions.
An HHS worker advised The Epoch Occasions in a January 2024 e mail that it took so lengthy to adjudicate a March 2023 request due to the backlog.
“I respect your endurance,” the worker wrote on the time.
Kennedy, who was chairman of the Youngsters’s Well being Protection group earlier than changing into well being secretary, advised reporters on Tuesday that he spent years concerned in lawsuits introduced in opposition to businesses that allegedly stonewalled requests made beneath FOIA.
“Plenty of the people who find themselves in HHS proper now … come from that background. So all of us perceive how vital it’s to have clear communications,” Kennedy stated. “The papers that we produce on this company don’t belong to us. They belong to the American folks, and we must be sincere with them.”