Ronny Jackson: “My amendment seeks to reset the budget of the Office of the Attending Physician to appropriate levels. The Office of the…”

“My amendment seeks to reset the budget of the Office of the Attending Physician to appropriate levels. The Office of the Attending Physician to Congress was created nearly 100 years ago following the unexpected deaths of several Members of Congress. I think we can all agree there is a need for medical care here in Congress to provide things like preventative medicine, vaccinations for travel, and occasional emergency medical care. I do not disagree with that concept. That being said, during the pandemic and in the years following, the Office of the Attending Physician was provided substantial increases in funding, which might have been necessary to meet the unique challenges being presented at the time. However, the pandemic is long over, and it is time to restore fiscal sanity to the Federal Government across the board, and that includes bringing this office's budget back to prepandemic levels. In addition, and, unfortunately, what was meant to be a nonpartisan role of Attending Physician to Congress has been highly politicized by the current Attending Physician. Dr. Monahan was appointed to his current position in 2009, and according to the Congressional Research Service, has been the longest serving person in the role since the 1960s. {time} 1015 During his historically long tenure, the attending physician has grown extremely close to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.…”