Where Were CDC’s Planes? I didn’t know they had their own planes:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has three private jets to use in case of an emergency. They cost $7 million a year for taxpayers, and in the last year, they were used nine times.That has some people asking why one of those planes was not used to bring Speaker home when he was in Rome last month with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.
Why does the CDC even have planes?
The CDC planes cost $3,000 an hour to operate and are usually only used to carry CDC staff to emergency situations, but they have been used for other business. One was used regularly for political travel by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, until Congress started asking questions.
I don’t think that really answers the question though. If they’re used to carry CDC staff — who, presumably, aren’t the ones with dangerous, contagious diseases — why don’t those staff members just rent a private jet when they need it?