REPORT: Fauci may be forced to pay back 2022 salary

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s term as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases officially ended on December 12, 2021. But according to a new report, the doctor, who didn’t retire until December 31, 2022, may have overstayed his welcome.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee revealed on Monday that Fauci, along with more than a dozen other NIH officials, may not have been formally reappointed after 2021, meaning the doctor’s exorbitant 2022 salary of $434,312 would have been improperly received. Additionally, the committee called into question the officials’ use of $26 billion in federal grants.

In a letter addressed to Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, the House committee accused Becerra of violating section 2033 of the 21st Century Cures Act, which requires that NIH directors be reappointed after five-year terms. If the Biden Administration failed to do this, the letter argued that Fauci’s federal salary would have been unlawful as he would not have technically been a federal employee during his last year as NIH directory. The letter also points out that Fauci would not have had the authority to approve any federal grants that year.

“Based on the information provided to date, the Committee believes that you failed to reappoint the NIH IC [Institute or Center] Directors… after their terms expired on December 13, 2022,” the report described. “Only after multiple investigative letters and extensive discussion with the Committee did you apparently attempt to reappoint these NIH IC Directors in a series of signed appointment affidavits issued on June 8, and 15, 2023, some eighteen months after their terms expired.”

And while, as noted above, a majority of the doctors were eventually reinstated, Dr. Fauci, who had retired by then, was never officially authorized for his final year in power.

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“Given his central role in the COVID-19 response, the Committee is particularly concerned about the failure to reappoint Dr. Fauci,” the letter continued. “Without reappointment, Dr. Fauci continued to serve as NIAID Director until his retirement on December 31, 2022. If Dr. Fauci was never reappointed, every action he took is potentially invalid.”

“During that time, Dr. Fauci also served as President Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser. He regularly attended high-level meetings with Biden administration leadership and policy makers, including the National Security Council and the intelligence community. He was instrumental in crafting the administration’s response to the pandemic and was an outspoken advocate for intrusive public health mandates…. That he could have amassed and exercised all of this authority and influence without being duly reappointed as NIAID Director demonstrates how ineffective HHS is at managing its component agencies and how little accountability currently exists.”

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Whether or not Fauci is forced to give back a year’s worth of his salary, the debacle still proves the gross irresponsibility of our federal government, which squanders hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

Thankfully, the Founders gave us the solution, not only to crack down on reckless federal spending but also to ensure that unaccountable bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci never accumulate too much power.

According to Article V of the Constitution, the American people, through their state legislatures, can call a convention of the states for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution. Under the Convention of States’ resolution, these amendments would be limited to restricting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, imposing fiscal restraints, and placing term limits on federal officials. Any amendments passed out of the convention would then go back to the states for ratification. In other words, there is absolutely nothing Congress or anyone else in the federal government can do to stop the process. It begins and ends with We the People.

For Dr. Anthony Fauci, an Article V convention is a nightmare waiting to happen. For the American people, it’s a dream come true. To join us in the fight to save liberty from federal tyranny, sign the petition below today!