Robert Redfield, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency is not prohibited from researching gun violence, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday.
"I just had a very encouraging meeting with the new CDC director where he agreed there is no longer a prohibition on the CDC conducting research on the gun violence epidemic," Schumer said in a tweet.
"That is a good first step, but we have a lot of work to do to ensure the CDC initiates this extremely important research in the near future," Schumer added in a follow-up tweet.
"I hope that the CDC will use some of their newly increased resources from the omnibus spending package to get this done," Schumer wrote in the tweet.
The recent omnibus spending bill included language that clarified that the CDC was allowed to study gun violence. That research had been effectively prohibited under the so-called Dickey Amendment after late Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark., inserted language into a 1996 funding bill, The Hill reported.
The amendment does not specifically ban gun violence research, but it says, "none of the funds made available in this title may be used, in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control."
The CDC has lacked funding for firearms research ever since the amendment passed in 1996, The Hill reported.
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