Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement regarding the Biden administration’s request for $30 billion.
“After spending trillions of dollars, the Biden administration is requesting additional $30 billion with no clear plan and no transparency. For months, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked for complete details on how the administration spent funds from the Democrats’ nearly $2 trillion spending bill they rushed through Congress a year ago. We’re still waiting for that information and the President’s COVID-19 response team hasn’t publicly answered questions before our committee in almost a year. It’s unacceptable, especially given the administration is calling this request short term but it is five times the size of FDA’s annual budget.
“Spending $30 billion more without proper oversight or a proper plan to end the public health emergency is not how we give Americans their freedom back. This is the not the emergency America faced at the beginning of the pandemic. Today, we have effective vaccines and therapeutics. We know natural immunity provides robust protection. It’s time to unwind this pandemic of bureaucracy, get government out of the way, and allow Americans to return to normal life.”
NOTE: On February 4, 2021, Energy and Commerce Republicans sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget to request details on the amount of remaining funds unspent from the CARES Act (H.R. 748), the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266), and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (H.R. 133).
On October 27, 2021, Energy and Commerce Republicans sent a letter to Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) requesting he schedule a hearing on the Biden Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On January 5, 2022, Leader Rodgers, House Budget Committee Republican Leader Jason Smith (MO-08), and House Ways & Means Committee Republican Leader Kevin Brady (TX-08) in a letter to President Biden, slammed the Administration for its failure to account for how, when, and where funding supposedly meant to address COVID-19 has been distributed and spent to date.
On February 10, 2022, Leader Rodgers and more than 70 House Republicans urged President Biden and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to accept that COVID-19 has become endemic, recognize that current heavy-handed government interventions are doing more harm than good, and immediately begin the process to unwind the Public Health Emergency so our country can get back to normal.
