FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05.29.19
Contact: Alexa Barrett, Communications Assistant
Email: alexa@equityfwd.org
Phone: 914-602-3147
Embattled Former Refugee Director Scott Lloyd Leaves Agency, Anti-Abortion Extremist Matt Bowman Promoted to Civil Rights Division
Equity Forward has long called for HHS Secretary Azar to fire both Lloyd and Bowman
5.29.2019 – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced several staff changes at the agency. Scott Lloyd, the former director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) best known for his mismanagement of the child separation crisis, will leave HHS, and the agency promoted Matt Bowman, a former anti-abortion terrorist, from the Office of General Counsel to principal advisor to the director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
“Since taking office, Alex Azar has empowered unqualified ideologues at HHS who put their own political views ahead of what’s best for those they are supposed to serve,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, director of Equity Forward
“Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed. Lloyd was given a soft landing while it appears that Bowman has been moved to a role where he can continue to force his own ideological beliefs on the rest of us. The fact is: today we’re left with more questions than answers about Alex Azar and Scott Lloyd’s mismanagement of a major humanitarian crisis and why Lloyd was able to continue to earn a salary for nearly a year after his incompetence was laid bare to the world. While it’s fitting that Lloyd is finally leaving government, we urge Congress to continue to exercise its oversight responsibilities and hold Lloyd accountable for his troubling actions.”
For a year and a half under the leadership of Scott Lloyd, ORR lurched from one manufactured crisis to another, triggering numerous lawsuits, denying young women in ORR care access to abortion and implementing housing for the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on family separation. Late last year, news broke that Lloyd waived required Child Abuse and Neglect background checks for over 2,000 staff overseeing the housing of minors at a tent city in Tornillo, Texas, calling into question whether any of these staff have serious criminal histories. Many of the staffers who did not receive background checks had the closest and most regular contact with children in ORR custody. Congressman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter to HHS Secretary Azar expressing concern over this revelation and called on Lloyd to testify in front of Congress.
In February, Mother Jones exposed Matt Bowman’s long history of attending and spearheading anti-abortion and homophobic protests that targeted communities and individuals at their workplaces and homes. Equity Forward also detailed and tracked Bowman’s activities going back to the late 90s. Bowman terrorized individuals across the country while frequently working with Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue National), a radical organization that uses terrorism to advance its anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim agenda. Specifically, he was one of the few anti-abortion protesters who chose to protest Buffalo, New York as the community was grieving shortly after the assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a local doctor who provided abortions; even some anti-abortion activists refused to participate in the Operation Rescue protests.
Additional background on Scott Lloyd and Matt Bowman is available at FireScottLloyd.org and WhoIsMattBowman.org; for more information on other HHS officials, visit HHSWatch.com.
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