Fact Checker: Sen. Ernst is right on funding for CDC and NIH

At a Feb. 28 event in Coralville, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, expressed her faith in the nation’s public health agencies to meet the coronavirus crisis.

“If you go back and actually look at CDC and NIH funding, we as Congress actually increased NIH funding over the past number of years,” Ernst said to Gazette reporter James Q. Lynch.

A Gazette reader asked us to Fact Check this statement — likely because Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg claimed the opposite during a Democratic presidential debate.

Much has changed since Ernst defended the funding levels of these public health agencies.

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/officeholder or a national candidate/officeholder about Iowa, or in ads that appear in our market.

Claims must be independently verifiable.

We give statements grades from A to F based on accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@thegazette.com.

This Fact Checker was researched and written by Molly Duffy of The Gazette. The episode is hosted by Molly Duffy and co-hosted by Erin Jordan, Michaela Ramm, and B.A. Morelli and produced by Stephen Colbert. Music is Lobby Time by Kevin MacLeod

Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3986-lobby-time/

License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/