A gloved healthcare professional applies a bandage or bandage after vaccination or medication injection. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The State Department must spend the $600 million approved by Congress on an international vaccination program, according to a letter sent Monday by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.
The six senior members of the Budget Committee, three Republicans and three Democrats, called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fulfill the administration’s “promise” to GAVI, the vaccine alliance.
“GAVI plays a critical role in preventing the spread of preventable diseases around the world and helps protect public health in our country by stopping outbreaks before they reach our borders,” the senators wrote. “Congressional support for GAVI continues because it is a proven public-private partnership that has vaccinated more than 1.1 billion children and prevented 20.6 million deaths since its inception in 2000.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine; Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a member of the Subcommittee on Federal Appropriations for Foreign Operations; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., all signed the letter.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, did not sign the letter.
A State Department spokesperson wrote in an email that the department “does not comment on congressional correspondence.”
Senators wrote in the letter that GAVI “supports U.S. industry and jobs by purchasing over $12.5 billion in U.S.-made goods and vaccines.”
“It is the world’s leading purchaser of U.S.-made vaccines and hosts the U.S.-established global vaccine stockpile,” the senators wrote. “In addition, GAVI-funded vaccines will be approved under the same standards used by the Food and Drug Administration.”
