WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Biden Administration must account for its current COVID-19 spending amidst reports of tens of billions of misused federal taxpayer dollars before requesting further funding, according to a new letter from top Republican leaders of the House Committees on Ways & Means, Budget, and Energy & Commerce. The letter comes just days after America reached its highest average daily COVID-19 case number, nearly two years since the emergence of the virus, and amidst reports of Americans stuck in lines waiting hours for COVID-19 testing or unable to find at-home tests.

“American taxpayers deserve an honest and detailed accounting of where the $6 trillion in COVID-19 relief passed by Congress has been spent and how much remains,” wrote House Ways & Means Committee Republican Leader Kevin Brady (TX-08), House Budget Committee Republican Leader Jason Smith (MO-08), and House Energy & Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05). 

“Your Administration has misused taxpayer dollars to spend on items unrelated to COVID-19 and repurposed funds for the southern border crisis of your own creation. The American people deserve transparency and answers to these important questions from their government before being asked to further foot the bill for another attempt by your White House to spend hundreds of billions or even trillions more in the name of ‘combatting COVID-19.’”

Key Points: 

• The $2 trillion in funding in the Biden Administration’s so-called COVID “rescue” bill allocated less than 9 percent to combatting the virus, with the remaining 91 percent spending hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out state governments, and build bike trails, new high school weight rooms, apartment buildings, and golf courses. 
•  The Biden Administration diverted $850 million meant to support the nation’s COVID-19 testing capabilities to address the fallout from the Administration’s self-induced border crisis – including housing those that illegally crossed the southern border in the wake of Administration policies that weakened border security and encouraged illegal immigration. 
• Hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted from re-stockpiling the Strategic National Stockpile in order to deal with President Biden’s border crisis, further undermining America’s public health preparedness.
• The almost half a trillion dollars in funds remaining from the $2 trillion in so-called “COVID-relief” enacted in March 2021 should be first used to boost mitigation efforts before asking American taxpayers for more money.
• The Biden Administration has ignored multiple requests for more transparency and accountability on spending from Ranking Members of the House Budget Committee, House Energy & Commerce Committee, House Oversight and Reform Committee, and House Homeland Security Committee. 

CLICK HERE to read the full letter.