Dems Press White House on CDC Testimony

WASHINGTON — Several Democrats on Thursday challenged White House officials' claim that they removed large parts of proposed congressional testimony on global warming because the material conflicted with findings from a U.N. scientific panel.

Sen. Barbara Boxer released a paragraph-by-paragraph comparison of the phrases that the White House removed and the U.N. panel's report this year on how climate change affected public health.

The comparisons showed striking similarities.

Both raised virtually identical concerns: heat stress on vulnerable populations; the likelihood of respiratory illnesses from increased air pollution; the spread of waterborne infectious diseases; and more injuries from severe weather events such as wildfires.

At issue is testimony Tuesday by Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer heads.

"This administration wants to downplay the threat global warming poses to the American people," said Boxer, D-Calif. Joining her at a news conference were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Citing the California wildfires, Klobuchar said it was troubling that one of the deleted paragraphs said with global warming "forest fires are expected to increase in frequency, severity, distribution and duration."

She said the U.N report also cited the increased likelihood of wildfires as a result of climate change.

"Time and time again this administration has changed scientific reports that do not align with their position," said Boxer, D-Calif. Her committee is developing legislation that would limit the release of "greenhouse" gases linked to global warming.

The Bush administration opposes mandatory caps on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

The Associated Press reported that Gerberding's draft testimony was edited heavily during a White House review. The White House on Wednesday acknowledged that significant sections were deleted. Six of the deleted pages detailed how global warming might affect Americans and they included a section with the title, "Climate Change is a Public Concern."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the deletions were made because John Marburger, who heads the White House Office of Science and Technology, and his staff raised concerns that the sections were not in line with the findings of the U.N. panel.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has led worldwide research on global warming.

"The draft information did not comport with ... the science that was in the IPPC report," Perino said.

That brought a sharp rebuke Thursday from Boxer, D-Calif., and the other two senators. Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, also has strongly criticized the White House explanation.

Boxer said she had been provided a copy of the original draft testimony from the CDC, the government's premier public health and disease monitoring and response agency.

In a letter to Marburger, Gordon disputed suggestions that the U.N. report and the original CDC draft testimony were in conflict.

"We are particularly interested in your reliance on the work of the IPCC, which you have questioned on a number of occasions. However, it appears that the IPCC did support CDC's conclusions," Gordon wrote in the letter late Wednesday.

Gordon said the U.N. panel said that a 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperature, there will be an "increasing burden from malnutrition, diarrhoeal, cardio-respiratory, and infectious diseases, increased morbidity and mortality from heat waves, floods, and droughts and changed distribution of some disease vectors."

"This appears to support the deleted sections of Dr. Gerberding's testimony," Gordon said.

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