Following Meeting with New CDC Director, Schumer Announces that Director Redfield Agreed the CDC is no Longer Prohibited from Studying Gun Violence Epidemic

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer released the following statement after meeting with new CDC Director Redfield this morning. The meeting comes after Leader Schumer and Democrats secured language in the omnibus funding package that the Dickey Amendment does not prohibit the CDC from studying the issue of gun violence. This is the first time that Congress has spoken on this issue in decades and because of the Democrats’ efforts, there is now clear intent from Congress that the CDC is allowed to conduct this research.

“I just had a very encouraging meeting with the new CDC director where he agreed there is no longer a prohibition on the CDC conducting research on the gun violence epidemic. That is a good first step, but we have a lot of work to do to ensure the CDC initiates this extremely important research in the near future.

“I hope that the CDC will use some of their newly increased resources from the omnibus spending package to get this done.”