NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat said Sunday he would work to block a plan that would significantly cut the budget of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning that such a spending cut could pose a danger to the public.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told the Associated Press that he would block passage of a bill in the Senate that would make the proposed cuts.

Democrats said the proposal in a House bill includes a $1.8 billion, or about 22 percent, cut to the CDC’s proposed budget, which would harm public health. The Republican-led initiative would also mean significant cuts to programs designed to treat gunshot injuries and prevent opioid overdoses.

The Republican-led House Budget Committee advanced the measure in July in a vote along party lines.

Schumer said such a cut would “wreak havoc at a fundamental level on food safety funding mechanisms and tracking measures.”

He cited in particular the CDC’s work related to the ongoing outbreak of listeria food poisoning linked to Boar’s Head sausages that has killed at least three people and sickened more than 40 others.

“A 22 percent cut in CDC funding at a time when there is a listeria outbreak should turn our stomachs,” Schumer said in an interview.

Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of sausage products on July 30, expanding an initial recall on July 25, after a sample of liver sausage collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. The CDC said last week that New York health officials tested a sample of liver sausage and confirmed the same strain of listeria.

The recall includes more than 70 products – including liver sausage, ham, beef salami and bologna – manufactured at the company’s plant in Jarratt, Virginia.

If the measure is passed, “the federal government’s entire food safety apparatus could be at risk.”

“It’s devastating,” Schumer said. “The Senate will not tolerate it.”