Former Health Secretaries Unite Behind Museum

In an uncommon display of unity, seven former Secretaries of Health have joined together to endorse the National Health Museum and urge White House support for the Museum’s proposal to acquire a site at the national Mall.

The seven signers are a bipartisan group that served as top health officials in the administrations of five former Presidents. Three served as Secretaries of Health, Education and Welfare during the 1970s: Caspar W. Weinberger (Nixon), David Mathews, PhD (Ford), and Joseph A. Califano, Jr. (Carter); and four served as Secretaries of Health and Human Services during the 1980s and 1990s: Richard S. Schweiker (Reagan), Margaret M. Heckler (Reagan), Otis R. Bowen, MD (Reagan), and Louis W. Sullivan (George H.W. Bush).

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a long time Museum supporter, has written Museum Chairman William A. Haseltine, PhD, a similar letter of endorsement. She was unable to sign the joint letter from the former Secretaries due to temporary executive branch advocacy restrictions.

The collective endorsement, put forward in a letter addressed to President George W. Bush, conveys enthusiasm for the Museum’s mission and urges support for the Museum’s proposal to acquire its desired site at the national Mall. "We envision a Museum that will inspire visiting school groups from across the nation, families with young adults and parents, and Americans of all ages, venturing on the most exciting of educational journeys," the letter states.

"It is not often that every former living US Secretary of Health speaks in such clear agreement on a single issue," said Acting Museum President J. Mark Dunham. "We thank the former Secretaries for this compelling endorsement." He added, "We are proud that, increasingly, the Museum is proving to be the single rallying point around which the entire health community is converging."