In a letter sent to Congressional leadership, the co-chairs of the COVID-19 Global Vaccination Caucus urged the inclusion of $5 billion in global COVID-19 response funding with any COVID-19 supplemental package.
This would shore up aid when USAID has said it will have fully obligated the funding from the American Rescue Plan Act within a matter of weeks, according to U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), and Mark Pocan (DWI), as well as U.S. Sens. Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). It would also help potentially combat the low rates of vaccination that have been consistent throughout lower-income nations, largely due to lack of supply.
“We remain gravely concerned that a failure to prioritize global vaccination could allow the emergence of future variants that will threaten our own national security, lives around the world, and undermine the American business recovery,” the lawmakers wrote. “As the White House highlighted in its letter to Congress today, “leaving large unvaccinated populations worldwide will increase the risk of new deadly variants emerging that could evade our current vaccines and treatments.” As a result, we were disappointed to see that the COVID-19 supplemental funding was stripped out of the FY22 omnibus, and while we understand there are issues that need to be resolved, we strongly urge that any additional COVID-19 supplemental funding or package include the global COVID-19 response.”
The members called attention to the number of Congressional lawmakers that have stressed a need for funding on this issue on both sides of the aisle. Likewise, they pushed for the full $5 billion for a pandemic response requested by the Biden administration. They shaped response on a global scale to be in America’s self-interest and duty and maintenance of its global leadership.