Blumenthal Criticizes CDC Style Guide Word Usage Suggestions

The "Budget Guidance Style Guide" offered to employees suggested avoiding the words "vulnerable," "diversity" and "entitlement"

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and several other Democrats are criticizing the Trump Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leadership for reports of a ban on certain words used by the CDC for the upcoming budget process.

In a letter to the CDC from US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and cosigned by Blumenthal, Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the legislators questioned what terms were banned and why.

The letter questioned reports that the banned words included "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."

"If this is true, this guidance is not just a mere chance of vocabulary, it is a fundamental shift of direction and a reflection of flawed ideology," the senators' original letter read.

Last month and in a response to the letter, CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald wrote her own, stating that the CDC had not banned employees from using any words.

"Although media reports claim the words 'fetus,' 'transgender' or 'evidence-based' were prohibited, at no time was there any guidance provided regarding these terms. To reiterate, CDC continues to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans," Fitzgerald wrote.

However, Fitzgerald sent along a "Budget Guidance Style Guide" which included direction to refer to the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, as "Obamacare" and to avoid the words "vulnerable," "diversity," or "entitlement."

"The CDC’s attempt to hide the Trump Administration’s politicization of science behind grammatical correctness is offensive. Let us be clear: there is no reasonable explanation, linguistic or otherwise, for avoiding terms like "diversity" or "vulnerable." To call these words overused would be laughable if the implications of avoiding their use weren’t so stunning," Blumenthal wrote in a statement.

Fitzgerald said that the style guide was just a suggestion of what terms to use and what "often overused" words to avoid.

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