a part of this administration’s broader pattern of not only discounting the value of federal employees but suppressing, undermining, discounting, and wholesale ignoring scientific data produced by their own qualified scientists." Gun laws Gillibrand's position on gun rights has changed from being against strict gun control in the House to being more "flexible" on the issue since she joined the Senate. While in the House, she had received a 100% positive rating from the National Rifle Association, and sponsored an amendment to the 2008 Farm Bill that would have allowed expanded hunting on public lands. On the other hand, Gillibrand worked to strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Act. Gillibrand's pro-gun rights positions received scrutiny after her appointment to the Senate and were the object of criticism by some of her fellow New York Democrats, particularly those in the New York City area. Within days of her being named to the Senate, Gillibrand indicated that her pro-gun rights position was "flexible". By late 2010, the NRA had regraded Gillibrand to an F rating, citing her votes against NRA-backed bills. In one of her first votes as a senator, Gillibrand voted to reject a measure that would have expanded gun rights in the District of Columbia. While Gillibrand's spokesman characterized the vote as consistent with her previous view that local governments have the right to determine gun restrictions, the Albany Times Union noted that her position was counter to her vote just five months earlier on an almost identical House bill. She co-authored the Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2009 with Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a longtime advocate of gun control. Gillibrand also opposed federal legislation that would have allowed American citizens to carry concealed firearms across state lines even if they were legally allowed to carry the weapons in their home states. Gillibrand's support of gun rights has been characterized more specifically as support of hunters' rights. Despite her mother being an avid hunter, Gillibrand has never hunted before, though she has shot skeet. In January 2016, Gillibrand was one of eighteen senators to sign a letter to Thad Cochran and Barbara Mikulski requesting that the Labor, Health and Education subcommittee hold a hearing on whether to allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fund a study of gun violence and "the annual appropriations rider that some have interpreted as preventing it" with taxpayer dollars.