THIS GEORGIAN IS IN LINE TO TAKE THE REINS AT CDC

Fitzgerald to take helm amid threats of Ebola, Zika.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to appoint Georgia Public Health Commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the most crucial public health positions in the federal government.

Public health sources said the appointment is expected to be announced as early as today.

Fitzgerald, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has headed that state’s public health department since 2011, will succeed Tom Frieden. He stepped down in January after serving for nine years, longer than any director since the 1970s. Anne Schuchat, a veteran CDC official, has been serving as acting director.

The future director is currently president-elect of the nonprofit group that represents the nation’s public health agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. She has strong ties to Republican leaders in and from Georgia, including Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Fitzgerald, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1992 and 1994 in her state’s 7th Congressional District.

She will take the helm at the Atlanta-based CDC at a critical time, as outbreaks of Ebola, Zika and antibiotic-resistant infections pose growing threats worldwide. Every president since Ronald Reagan has faced such threats, and experts say it is only a matter of time until Trump must confront a pandemic outbreak of an infectious disease.

Although the HHS secretary has underscored his commitment to global health and in May traveled to Liberia, the country hardest hit by the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic, public health advocates are worried about continued funding to help other countries detect and stop outbreaks after about $600 million in emergency Ebola funds run out next year.

The administration is proposing a $1.2 billion cut — 17 percent — for the CDC in fiscal 2018. If implemented, it would result in the lowest CDC budget in more than 20 years. Frieden and others have sharply criticized the reduction, which they say would make Americans less safe and healthy and would increase health-care costs. The proposal also includes deep cuts — more than $100 million — for emergency preparedness in the United States and globally.

Separately, both House and Senate proposals to replace parts of the Affordable Care Act call for eliminating critical funds for key public health programs that make up about 12 percent of CDC’s budget.

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald