Agency denies interference in climate testimony

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House watered down testimony to Congress about climate change by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before she delivered it, an activist group said on Wednesday, but the agency and White House both denied it.

The anti-nuclear group Physicians for Social Responsibility said White House officials had forced CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding to remove specific references about the effects of climate change from Tuesday's testimony to a Senate committee.

The group, which also testified before the committee, distributed what it said were copies of Gerberding's testimony before and after it was edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, and said significant changes were made.

"It appears the White House has denied a congressional committee access to scientific information about health and global warming. This misuse of science and abuse of the legislative process is deplorable," Dr. Michael McCally, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

The White House and CDC denied that serious changes were made to Gerberding's testimony to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

"A number of the agencies had some concerns with the draft and I know that our scientists at the Office of Science and Technology Policy looked at the draft and wanted to make sure that it was taking advantage of the science that had been provided in the (Intergovernmental) Panel on Climate Change," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The physicians group shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize as part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

Some groups have accused the administration of President George W. Bush of downplaying the global climate change threat, and of interfering with scientific and medical decisions. The White House has come to agree with the majority of climate experts who say that global warming is under way and that human activity has contributed to it.