Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is set to receive a retirement benefit of $350,000 a year with cost-of-living adjustments, the highest payout of any federal employee, reports OpenTheBooks.com.
U.S. government pensions are based on recent salaries and years of service. Fauci, who continues to work at age 81, has been on the federal payroll for 55 years.
Pay Boost Hikes Pension
Fauci was paid $434,312 in 2020, the last year for which salary figures were provided to OpenTheBooks.com. That represented a 4 percent increase over the previous year. Fauci’s current salary exceeds that of the U.S. president, who is paid $400,000 a year.
Pension payouts are based upon 80 percent of his highest consecutive salaries for three years along with credit for sick leave. Fauci benefits each year he stays on the job because his compensation keeps getting higher.
In 2004, under the George W. Bush administration, Fauci got a 68 percent boost in pay to “…appropriately compensate him for the level of responsibility…especially as it relates to his work on biodefense research activities,” writes OpenTheBooks, quoting a document the transparency group obtained through legal action. Fauci’s salary went from $200,000 to $335,000 a year.
Fauci’s Finances Raise Flags
If Fauci’s exorbitant salary has been a point of contention among his detractors, his apparent lack of financial transparency has been even more so.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, whom Fauci famously dismissed as a “moron” during a Senate Health Committee hearing in January, has been particularly critical of Fauci’s lack of candor regarding his financial dealings. Marshall introduced the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals (FAUCI) Act specifically in response to it.
While Fauci claimed in his testimony to the committee his finances were a matter of public record, Marshall only was able to obtain them through pressure after the fact.
Not ‘Public Information’
Watchdog groups, including OpenTheBooks.com, have been similarly stonewalled in trying to obtain financial disclosures and current salary information for Fauci. A lawsuit was necessary to obtain much of the information, says Adam Andrzejewski, CEO, and founder of OpenTheBooks.com.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci testified under oath that his financial records were ‘public information,’” said Andrzejewski. “It wasn’t true. Our organization at OpenTheBooks.com has battled for 12 months to obtain Fauci’s contract, confidentiality agreement, job description, ethics disclosures, financial and conflict [of interest] disclosures.”
“With Judicial Watch as our lawyers, last October, we filed a federal lawsuit,” said Andrzejewski. “Now, the National Institutes of Health admit to holding 1,200 pages subject to our request. On February 1, NIH is supposed to start producing these documents at a rate of 300 pages per month.”
Others are more blunt in their criticism of Fauci, including John C. Goodman, president of the Goodman Institute and co-publisher of Health Care News.
“Clearly, we are not getting our money’s worth,” said Goodman. “And if Fauci was funding the gain of function research that created the coronavirus, he should pay us—a lot.”
Kevin Stone (kevin.s.stone@gmail.com) writes from Arlington, Texas.