House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte on Tuesday asked Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson whether they plan to allow Ebola-infected patients from Africa to come to the United States for treatment.
“Press reports have indicated that the Administration is putting together a plan to allow non-U.S. citizens infected with Ebola, to enter the United States for treatment,” Goodlatte said in a letter to the two secretaries.
Goodlatte’s query is based on a report from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which cited an anonymous source with information about the plan.
Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, gave Kerry and Johnson an Oct. 25 deadline to provide the Judiciary Committee with “any and all written memos or other documentation written by employees of your Departments regarding the formulation of a plan to allow non-U.S. citizens infected with Ebola to enter the U.S. to receive medical treatment.”
A Liberian stricken with Ebola was admitted into the United States last month, and two nurses who cared for him at a Dallas hospital caught the virus. Hundreds more were exposed to the disease.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans to hold a hearing Friday on the government’s response to the Ebola outbreak.
Goodlatte recently asked Obama to temporarily block U.S. entry by foreigners from the West African nations afflicted with the Ebola virus.
Editor’s note: Judicial Watch is representing the Washington Examiner in the newspaper’s federal lawsuit seeking access to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau records under FOIA.
