CDC’s new director is pressed to do something about its zombie programs

August 18, 2026 - 20:56

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under fresh scrutiny as its new director confronts a pile of outdated initiatives that critics say have turned into zombie programs. One of the most glaring examples is the agency's Alzheimer's disease division, which still receives a hefty $41 million in congressional appropriations this year, yet has no staff assigned to actually run it. The money sits there, allocated on paper, but the program is effectively a ghost operation.

This situation has lawmakers and public health watchdogs asking pointed questions about how the agency manages its budget and priorities. The new director, who took over amid promises of reform, is now being pressed to either revive these dormant efforts or kill them off for good. The Alzheimer's program is just one of several that have outlived their usefulness or lost their funding focus, but the optics are particularly bad given the ongoing national conversation about aging and cognitive health.

Supporters of the program argue that the research and community outreach it once funded were valuable, and that the money should not simply be returned to the Treasury. But with no one at the helm, the program cannot deliver anything. The pressure is mounting for the director to make a decisive call, either by hiring staff and restarting the work, or by formally shutting it down and redirecting those funds to more pressing needs like infectious disease tracking or mental health services. For now, the empty office and the unspent millions remain a symbol of the bureaucratic inertia that the new leadership was brought in to fix.