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Lawmaker says State Department is withholding congressionally mandated vaccine funds
Summary
A lawmaker told the Senate that $600,000,000 intended for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, remains withheld despite statutory direction, and urged the State Department to release the money to prevent avoidable illness and deaths abroad.
A lawmaker criticized the State Department for not following the spending requirements Congress wrote into the state and foreign operations appropriations bill, saying those requirements "were not suggestions. They were a matter of law." The speaker said the department is fighting officials and that funds Congress appropriated are not reaching people who depend on them.
The speaker named Gavi, the vaccine alliance, and said the administration has been withholding $600,000,000 intended to help millions of children get vaccinated against preventable diseases including Ebola, cholera and mpox. "For months, the administration has been withholding $600,000,000," the lawmaker said, and noted that the Secretary had told lawmakers in a prior hearing he would see to the release of the money, yet it remained "stuck." The remarks framed the delay as a legal and execution problem, not a question of congressional intent.
