Speaker Mike Johnson publicly assailed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Health after revelations that a new “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group” was created and explicitly linked to events in Gaza, stirring calls for probes and criticism from city leaders who say local public health duties are being sidelined.
House Speaker Mike Johnson unloaded on Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Health after reports surfaced that staff formed a politically focused working group tied to overseas events. That criticism came as many New Yorkers point to visible problems at home: uncollected trash, snow-covered streets and other strains on basic city services. The contrast between city-level chaos and DOH attention to foreign conflicts sharpened GOP attacks.
“Instead of trying to force a radical-left foreign policy agenda, the bureaucrats in Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Health should focus on delivering the services New Yorkers pay for with their tax dollars,” the Speaker of the House wrote on X.
The post Johnson attached highlighted reporting about the group’s creation inside the city health agency and stirred fresh questions about priorities and taxpayer money. Officials tied to the effort were quoted in internal material, and critics say the timing could not be worse for a health department already stretched thin.
According to internal remarks reported in the press, one participant said the working group was “developed in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” That admission is at the center of the controversy and has Republican leaders, and some Democrats, pushing for answers about when and why a municipal agency shifted resources to a forum addressing international events rather than immediate local health threats.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a Democrat, chimed in with sharp criticism aimed at agency focus and use of city time. “Our health care officials should be fighting infectious diseases and addressing skyrocketing health care costs instead of spending public time debating geopolitics on city time.” Her comment underscored a rare cross-partisan moment of alarm over municipal priorities and the optics of public employees debating foreign policy while local crises persist.
City Councilman Eric Dinowitz also issued a strong rebuke, laying out why he sees the working group as a misuse of public resources. “I am outraged by reports that employees within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene organized a politically focused working group during work hours using city resources in a discussion that serves only to inflame tensions and make life less safe for New Yorkers. We depend on this agency to protect our health, and that responsibility should never be diluted by activity unrelated to its mission,” he wrote.
“Our city’s Jewish community is experiencing the greatest surge in antisemitism in recent memory. When a workplace forum promotes inflammatory narratives while ignoring the harm Jewish New Yorkers are experiencing, it deepens division and makes people feel excluded and unsafe in their own public institutions.”
All of this is happening while real public health emergencies persist. Rats roam our streets and syringes litter our playgrounds, all while the federal government continues its assault on vaccination science and raises the cost of healthcare. These DOHM employees appear to be prioritizing divisive foreign conflicts over their public health responsibilities. City agencies must remain focused on serving all New Yorkers with professionalism and care.
Calls for an investigation are growing, with officials asking whether city resources were used to push a political agenda during work hours. Advocates for a probe want clear accounting of staff time and funding tied to the forum, arguing taxpayers deserve transparency when an agency steps outside its typical public health remit. At the same time, some leaders worry about the potential chilling effect on discourse within city workplaces if calls for probes morph into partisan show trials.
For now, the debate centers on priorities and perception: critics insist the Department of Health should be squaring up on local epidemics, sanitation and rising costs rather than organizing around international grievances. It remains unclear whether Speaker Johnson’s public comments will trigger federal action, but the exchanges have already put Mamdani’s administration on the defensive and intensified scrutiny from both sides of the aisle as New Yorkers watch how the city responds to basic public health failures.
