The New American Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation designed to prevent President Donald Trump from firing Dr. Anthony Fauci from his position as the expert in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to a Tuesday press release from Markey.
If enacted, Markey’s proposed National Institutes of Health Director Protection Act would allow directors to be removed “only for malfeasance, neglect of duty, or incapacity —- not for having differing views on policy or expressing positions that are politically inconvenient,” Markey’s press release said. While the chances of Markey’s bill actually passing both houses of Congress and surviving a presidential veto are slim, it is important to challenge the blatantly unconstitutionality of the proposal.
Trump said on Monday that he has no plans to dismiss Fauci, who has been advising presidents on issues involving public health since President Ronald Reagan.
Speculation spiked that the doctor-advisor’s days as a presidential advisor may be numbered when Fauci said in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that had the United States launched “mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives” in the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci added that there was “pushback about shutting things down” any earlier than that, and was taken by some as implied criticism of Trump.
