Surgeon General Pressured by Bush Administration (Rep. Henry Waxman)

U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona told our committee that he was under greater pressure by this administration to back away from opinions or reports based on science if the administration didn’t like the political consequences of his reports, and that this was greater pressure than any of the other surgeon generals had had, even though the other two surgeon generals did mention that they had some instances where there was administration pressure on them, which they pretty much resisted.

One of the areas where Dr. Carmona complained of interference was in the report on global health, and he identified Mr. Steiger, who is an official in the Department of Health and Human Services, as someone who was insisting that he put in comments that Dr. Carmona felt were more political than based on science, and that he was offended by it and resisted it.