U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Tom Cole (R-OK) urged the Biden administration against spending hundreds of millions of dollars from the Provider Relief Fund to launch a COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
The White House on Nov. 22 released a press release announcing its six-week campaign through the end of the year urging Americans to get their updated COVID-19 vaccine.
The campaign is focused on reaching seniors and the communities that were hit hardest by COVID-19, the White House said, adding that $350 million is being used for community health centers to expand locally driven vaccine efforts, and $125 million will cover efforts to get more older Americans and people with disabilities vaccinated, including through accessible vaccination clinics, in-home vaccinations, transportation, outreach, and education.
While the White House didn’t say where the funds were coming from in its statement, Rep. McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Cole allege that the $475 million being spent on the vaccine campaign is being paid for by pandemic money meant for doctors, nurses, frontline healthcare workers, and hospitals, according to a Nov. 23 joint statement released by the Republicans.
“We are extremely concerned that, after the Biden administration stonewalled Congress for months about the remaining Provider Relief Fund dollars, it just announced $475 million of it will be used for a vaccine campaign,” Rep. Cole and Rep. McMorris Rodgers said.
“As Democrats have already spent more than a billion dollars on vaccine confidence activity, with no reporting on the success of its outcomes, we believe continuing these efforts is not the best use of these funds,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers, ranking member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cole, ranking member of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
The lawmakers noted that the funds were intended for those “who have been experiencing record burnout” and said that instead of being used for a vaccine campaign, the funds should be used to mitigate inflation and address workforce shortages “driven by Democrat policymaking.”
Rep. McMorris Rodgers, among others, plans to look into the Biden administration’s COVID-19 spending and policies, as well as the origins of the pandemic when the GOP takes control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2023.