RFK Jr. is Limiting Public Comment and it Could Be the Beginning of the End of Public Engagement in Federal Matters.
We lose rights one day a time, and this is the start down a dark path.
It may seem cheesy, but public comment is the light by which we see our federal government’s actions before they take them…
Public comment was first established in 1946, and since then, it has served as a method for the public to stay engaged in federal matters or decision-making.
Yes, the public can give comments with varying degrees of success; at times, commenting can seem ineffective. However, our group successfully petitioned VRBPAC and ACIP members for greater Novavax access in the last two years.
More importantly, the public comment process requires the federal government to announce its actions, creating a timeline of events leading up to whatever change is being implemented. This creates the space for potential intervention.
Please sign and share our petition to protect public comment.
If public comment is removed completely, then the federal government can take any action, and we won’t even know it’s happening because they don’t have to announce it.
First, they came for the waivers.
Right now, it’s only the Richardson waiver, which is a waiver of a waiver, forcing groups with Congressional exemptions for public comment to do it regardless.
However, like Roe v. Wade, this was never codified, and the HHS secretary has almost total control over its implementation. However, it is being challenged in court.
Immediately after taking office, RFK Jr. moved to have this waiver removed.
Not only does the waiver force public comment on groups who previously were not required to do it, but the waiver also had a stipulation to use the rule that allowed meetings to be canceled or not held in specific environments to be used less.
This was explicitly pointed out in RFK Jr’s official statement.
So, even if it’s protected by Congress, they are stating their plan to use the rule that allows them to skip meetings more often… and it won’t be loud when it happens.
To that point, this has quietly escalated.
Underfunding has been a Republican strategy for decades.
This will undoubtedly lead to cuts in the staff that maintains public comment for these various groups. Over 1,000 agencies use public comment, and only some are under the HHS’s control, but that’s more than you’d think.
This could have far-reaching negative impacts on our government and the actions it takes; we won’t even know what its done until after we are penalized for not following some new rule.
If they can get away with this without objection, other agencies could follow suit.
And we’ve already had a significant flu shot meeting happen without the normal process, and now we aren’t learning from last season and instead are doing this behind closed doors. Even if you don’t use public comment, the news you read comes from it, and you want it to be there even if you aren’t going to use it.
These meetings are more than just choosing next year’s variant and agreeing with the WHO; they also review data to see how effective last year’s vaccines were.
I have advocated for improved responses from our Influenza vaccines at VRBPAC meetings, and even if they are less effective than I’d like them to be…
This is a direct attack on our democracy and foreshadows actions to come.
The good news is that as of today, March 31st, 2025, the CDC has updated regulations.gov for the next ACIP meeting.
Comments close April 11th, 2025.
So, they are starting to move forward with meetings, but the moment we go to sleep on this, they will begin to cut more and more meetings, and we won’t even know it.
With over 1000 committees using public comment, it will be very hard to know that every group is allowing public comments; they could start cutting them, and no one would know because there would be no public comment for the process.
Please sign and share our petition to protect public comment.
Our options for fighting back are limited, but as new methods become available or the problem escalates further, we will contact you for actions.
The best thing we can do is educate ourselves and each other about the issue.
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