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This week, the DOGE-inspired cuts from the federal Health and Human Services Department sent around 75 federal employees home from the National Center for Toxicological Research at Jefferson. That’s a more than 25% reduction in the facility’s federal labor force.
NCTR is a highly respected institution that, for more than 50 years, has conducted experiments, the results of which are given to the Food and Drug Administration, which uses the information to make decisions on the safety of the country.
It’s easy for politicians to love on NCTR for what they do in bringing research scientists to this little corner of the world to conduct state-of-the-art investigations into how chemicals and toxins affect our world — and us.
Just a few years ago, Congressman Bruce Westerman showed up as NCTR was celebrating its 50th anniversary to praise the facility.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“NCTR has undoubtedly improved the lives of every American by developing needed research to ensure safe medicine, food and cosmetics,” Westerman said. “Without facilities such as this, the United States would not be home to the world’s safest and most abundant food supply.”
But on the occasion of the Donald Trump-approved, Elon Musk-demanded cuts carried out by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. — the one who thinks cod liver oil is a dandy treatment for measles — Westerman has been silent, despite efforts to get more information from his office by this newspaper.
The same goes for U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman. Emails and calls to them went unanswered.
It must be hard being a Republican lawmaker at this time. They were understandably giddy when Trump was reelected. We recall Westerman saying he was looking forward to working with the new president. But when the president’s work includes diminishing a prized institution back home, it must be just easier to look the other way.
The crux of the story about the job cuts was fleshed out by Bryan J. Barnhouse, the head of the Arkansas Research Alliance, which works closely with NCTR in its interactions with the state. He was quite perplexed at the job cuts, saying valuable experiments may just stop because of the move.
As an example, Barnhouse said one of NCTR’s experiments involved arsenic, which is found in groundwater, soil and, quite importantly to Arkansas, rice. Their work involves setting up models to better understand the levels of arsenic and how those levels affect a human’s neurological functions, such as sensory perception, movement, thought and emotions. Stuff you’d like to know.
Are more cuts on the way? Barnhouse said maybe, considering more money has to be cut from NCTR’s budget. Again, where those details could be coming from elected officials, whose job it is to keep up with such things, there is only silence.
Some would say it’s hard to blame them. Left up to them, they likely would not be taking chainsaws to federal budgets and, as in the case with HHS, sending 10,000 employees packing. But neither do they have the courage to stand up to the chainsaw-wielders and fight the cuts.
So what have these three been doing? On Westerman’s website, the “LATEST NEWS” has an announcement about a bipartisan bill on giving people a second chance, one on advocating for rural Arkansans and a happy piece on spring break.
On Boozman’s page, he announces that he’s joined a push to expand telehealth access, as well as notices on how he and Cotton are working to repeal a tax on firearm purchases and one on veteran’s affairs.
And Cotton, he’s busy working to allow farmers to protect their ponds from predatory birds and something called the poppy seed safety act. (Wasn’t that an episode of “Ozark”?)
Oddly, not a word about any of the turmoil going on at the federal level. Nothing on Trump getting rid of Voice of America, cuts to NOAA (which works to predict weather and understand climate changes) or the decimation of the nation’s outreach to the world known as the U.S. Agency for International Development — and certainly nothing on what’s going on in little Jefferson, Arkansas. Is it any wonder they’ve been advised against having town hall meetings?
If a Democrat was in the White House, these guys would be carrying picket signs demanding justice, accountability and transparency. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were as enthused about working for the best interests of Arkansans and the rest of the country, no matter who was in the White House?