NEW YORK (VINnews) — House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s health department after staffers formed a “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group” that accused Israel of committing genocide.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said on X that department employees should focus on delivering services to residents rather than advancing what he called a “radical-left foreign policy agenda.” He linked to a report that the group held its first meeting last week during work hours at the agency’s Long Island City headquarters.

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. https://t.co/WyLKz5ledH

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 10, 2026

Video obtained by the New York Post showed a presenter saying the group was developed “in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

Critics, including City Council Speaker Julie Menin and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called for investigations into whether taxpayer resources were used for political advocacy. Mamdani and the health department did not immediately comment.