After a vaccination or drug injection, a gloved healthcare worker applies a plaster or adhesive bandage. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The State Department must spend the $600 million approved by Congress for the international vaccine program, according to a letter sent Monday by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.
Six senior members of the Appropriations Committee, three Republicans and three Democrats, called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fulfill the government’s “commitment” to GAVI, the Alliance for Vaccines.
“GAVI plays a critical role in preventing the spread of preventable diseases around the world and helps protect our nation’s public health by stopping epidemics before they reach our borders,” the senators wrote. “Congressional support for GAVI continues because of its proven success as a public-private partnership that has immunized more than 1.1 billion children – and thus prevented 20.6 million deaths – since its inception in 2000.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine; Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations Ranking Member Brian Schatz, Hawaii; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., all signed the letter.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairwoman of the House and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, did not sign the letter.
A State Department spokesman wrote in an email that the department “does not comment on correspondence with Congress.”
The senators wrote in the letter that GAVI “supports American industry and jobs by purchasing more than $12.5 billion in U.S.-made goods and vaccines.”
“It is the world’s leading buyer of U.S.-produced vaccines and hosts the global U.S.-created vaccine stockpile,” the senators wrote. “Additionally, vaccines funded under GAVI are approved to the same standards as those applied by the Food and Drug Administration.”
