The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is threatening to subpoena American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten for failing to disclose communications between the teachers’ union and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening schools in early 2021.
In a letter to AFT attorney Michael Bromwich, subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said the union “continues to frustrate the Select Subcommittee’s investigation” by fighting its request for documents and other information.
Weingarten revealed in testimony to Congress last month that her group spoke with President Biden’s transition team about the CDC guidance that kept schools closed for the first half of 2021.
Wenstrup, 64, said lawmakers discovered the teachers’ union president “had a direct line to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky,” and his subcommittee asked for more documents in light of Weingarten’s testimony.
But since that time, AFT has dodged further document requests of Weingarten, as well as demands that other officials be made available for additional interviews — only offering the union’s director of nurses and health professionals for a deposition, according to Wenstrup.
“Unless an agreement can be reached soon,” the congressman wrote, “we will be forced to consider the use of compulsory process.”
Bromwich did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wenstrup said the subcommittee is requesting “[a]ll documents and communications between Ms. Weingarten or the American Federation of Teachers and the Biden Transition Team regarding COVID-19 between November 3, 2020 and January 20, 2021.”
The committee also is asking for “[a]ll phone records, including calls and text messages, between Ms. Weingarten and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky regarding COVID-19 or school closures or openings between January 20, 2021 and March 1, 2021.”
Additionally, the committee is seeking “[a]ll phone records, including calls and text messages, between Ms. Weingarten and any member of the Executive Office of the President regarding COVID-19 or school closures or openings between January 20, 2021 and March 1, 2021.”
Wenstrup is further demanding transcribed interviews with at least four AFT officials: senior director Kelly Trautner Nedrow, director of political and legislative policy Jane Meroney, senior director Marla Ucelli-Kashyap and deputy director of government relations Beth Antunez.
He has tentatively scheduled the depostions for June 12, June 19, June 26 and July 7, respectively, but will pause its request to hear further testimony from Weingarten, the letter states.
The House panel has also asked Walensky to testify about the influence of nongovernmental groups on CDC guidance during the pandemic.
The CDC director resigned earlier this month and will leave office on June 30, saying she had seen the nation through to the other side of the pandemic and had “never been prouder of anything I have done in my professional career” than leading the health agency.