A controversial reorganization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is coming under increased scrutiny by Congress, according to a letter released Tuesday.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has oversight over the Atlanta-based agency, has asked CDC Director Julie Gerberding for a briefing on the reorganization, as well as for information about its financial management office and the CDC's handling of human tissue samples and laboratory equipment.

The CDC's activities already were under scrutiny by the Senate Finance Committee, and by Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

In a letter Monday to Gerberding, officials from the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked for a variety of information about the agency's activities. The letter was signed by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the committee's chairman, and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of its oversight and investigations subcommittee.

"The Committee's oversight interest is to ensure that the CDC effectively manages its financial resources and its reorganization," Barton and Whitfield said in the letter, which asks the agency to respond by Nov. 6.

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said Tuesday afternoon that the agency had just received the letter and will cooperate fully.

Strategic changes at CDC, including the reorganization, were launched by Gerberding in June 2003 and have contributed to controversy and turmoil within the agency. Gerberding has said the agency is stronger than ever because of the changes.

"Some CDC employees have raised concerns that these changes will make CDC more cumbersome and bureaucratic, taking time and resources away from scientific programs directly benefiting the public," Barton and Whitfield said in their letter.

Skinner said generally that: "Congress has been very supportive of the reorganization and in fact approved the overall reorganization plan last year."

Barton and Whitfield also have asked the CDC to provide them a copy of a draft consultant's report that in July identified problems in the agency's financial management office.

The committee's request for information about the CDC's handling of tissue samples stems from issues discovered during its separate oversight of the National Institutes of Health, according to a committee press release. In that probe the committee found a senior NIH scientist had shared thousands of tissue samples with a pharmaceutical company.

To reach reporter Alison Young, call 404-526-7372.