WASHINGTON — The $475 million being spent for a campaign to encourage Americans to be vaccinated is being paid for by pandemic money meant for doctors and hospitals, Republicans charged Wednesday.
In a scene likely to be repeated often in a GOP House next year, House Energy and Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee ranking member Tom Cole, R-Okla., chastised the administration for the switch.
“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,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “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.”
