HHS Diverting Millions in Funding Marked for Vaccine Efforts to Housing Migrant Children
Fox News | 8/27/21 | Adam Shaw

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has notified Congress that it will transfer an additional $589 million, some of which comes from funding marked for COVID-19 vaccination efforts, to its program to shelter unaccompanied migrant children who have entered the U.S. at the southern border — part of more than $4 billion that has been diverted to the program this year.

HHS informed Congress that it is diverting $225 million in National Institute of Health (NIH) funding that was part of the December COVID-19 relief bill to the unaccompanied children (UAC) program, as well as $364 million in HHS funding that was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a congressional source told Fox News. Data shared with Fox News confirms that source’s account.

Of the ARP funding, $187.5 million had been marked for the Centers for Disease Control for “vaccine planning, distribution, monitoring and tracking” and an additional $25 million for “vaccine confidence activities.”

Meanwhile $151 million of the diverted funding had been tagged for the “Supply Chain for Vaccines, Therapeutics and Medical Supplies.”

In other news, the funds sequestered under the “For The Puppies Act” of 2021 have been diverted to the Congressional Striptease Junket in St. Bart’s of 2021.