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The Trump administration quietly spent billions in hospital funds on Operation Warp Speed

By Rachel Cohrs March 2, 2021

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration quietly took around $10 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and health care providers affected by Covid-19 and used the money to bankroll Operation Warp Speed contracts, four former Trump administration officials told STAT.

The Department of Health and Human Services appears to have used a financial maneuver that allowed officials to spend the money without telling Congress, and the agency got permission from its top lawyer to do so. Now, the Biden administration is refusing to say whether the outlay means there will be less money available for hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, and other providers.

Several provider groups said they had not heard that $10 billion for providers was spent on Warp Speed contracts until STAT’s reporting. Congress set aside that money to help health care providers pay for pandemic-related expenses including staffing, personal protective equipment, care for uninsured patients, and vaccine distribution. One of the top hospital lobbyists in D.C., who also did not know about the outlay, emphasized how much some hospitals still need the funding.

[...]

Politics played a role as well — the money was running out in the contentious run-up to the presidential election. Lawmakers were widely expected to pass an additional Covid-19 relief bill in July last year, but negotiations ultimately dragged out until December.

The Trump White House’s attitude was that agencies shouldn’t ask Congress for more money until they spent the Covid-19 relief money they had already received, the former HHS official said. That same attitude also motivated the administration’s active lobbying effort .. https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/31/trump-officials-lobbied-to-deny-states-money-for-vaccine-rollout/ .. to deny states more funds to help distribute vaccines.

Congress gave HHS permission to move money between accounts .. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46353#_Toc40095353 .. to respond to the pandemic, but the authority came with a catch — the agency had to notify Congress, and specifically, its appropriations committees, at least 10 days in advance of a transfer. Evan Hollander, a spokesperson for House Appropriations Committee Democrats, said the Trump administration did not notify the committee of any such transfer, and did not request additional funding for Operation Warp Speed.

[...]

The exact math about how much money is left in the provider fund is also murky. The Government Accountability Office found .. https://www.gao.gov/reports/GAO-21-265/ .. that at the end of December, HHS had $33.4 billion left. On Feb. 16, a HRSA spokesman told STAT there is $24 billion available. There were no new awards publicly announced in the meantime that account for the $9.4 billion discrepancy.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/02/trump-administration-quietly-spent-billions-in-hospital-funds-on-operation-warp-speed/

"Let's just say, tRUMP didn't get in the way of the suggestion for "Warp Speed". A catchy name. Probably enjoyed the idea of reallocating funds Congress had allocated for other purposes...again. And who cares if the person in his administration overseeing the money allocation had a couple of conflict of interest issues along the way."

This one is linked in the article above.

Select Subcommittee Seeks Transparency on Conflicts of Interest and Vaccine Selection in Operation Warp Speed

Aug 13, 2020
Press Release

Washington, D.C. (August 13, 2020) -- Yesterday, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent letters to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Operation Warp Speed Chief Advisor Dr. Moncef Slaoui, and David S. Harris, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Decision Vectors, seeking documents and information on potential conflicts of interest in Operation Warp Speed, the Administration’s vaccine and therapeutic development initiative. The letters also seek information on the Administration’s process to select vaccine candidates for investment through this initiative.

“Successful development of a vaccine requires scientific rigor and an open and transparent process that is free from financial and political conflicts of interest,” the Chairman wrote to Secretary Azar. “This is especially true of a vaccine developed on an accelerated basis. The Select Subcommittee strongly supports efforts to develop and distribute a life-saving coronavirus vaccine, but I am concerned that the selection of candidate vaccines for Operation Warp Speed lacked transparency and excluded many vaccine experts. I am also concerned that Dr. Slaoui’s financial interests in companies receiving federal funding—which he has referred to as “my retirement”—raise serious ethical issues and could undermine public confidence in this process.”

Operation Warp Speed’s chief advisor, Dr. Slaoui, is a venture capitalist and former pharmaceutical executive. He held $10 million in GlaxoSmithKline securities as of May 2020. On July 31, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi jointly secured an agreement of up to $2.1 billion to supply the federal government with 100 million doses of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, the largest such deal announced to date.

Dr. Slaoui also held significant holdings in Moderna, another company developing a coronavirus vaccine. On April 16, 2020, the federal government awarded $483 million in support to Moderna. On May 18, 2020, after joining Operation Warp Speed and amid widespread public pressure, Dr. Slaoui agreed to divest his holdings in Moderna. The federal government awarded another $472 million in support for Moderna on July 26, 2020.

The Chairman wrote: “It remains unclear whether Dr. Slaoui or other consultants working for Operation Warp speed have undisclosed conflicts of interest because the Administration has structured their contracts to avoid the ethics rules and requirements to disclose outside positions, stock holdings, and other potential conflicts that are applicable to federal employees.”

The Administration has reportedly hired Dr. Slaoui and several other outside consultants with ties to the pharmaceutical industry through a contractor, Advanced Decision Vectors. Two of these consultants, William Erhardt and Dr. Rachel Harrigan, are former Pfizer executives. On July 22, the Administration placed an order for a coronavirus vaccine, jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, worth $1.95 billion upon the vaccine’s successful production and distribution.

“Addressing potential conflicts of interest is critical to assure the public that decisions pertaining to the manufacturing and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine are made with a sound scientific basis, not for political reasons or for the financial benefit of any individual.”

The letter to Secretary Azar also expressed concern that the Administration’s process for selecting vaccine candidates has been opaque, and that the Administration has not released the list of vaccine candidates reviewed, the reasons for selecting or rejecting particular candidates, or the identity of the individuals who conducted the analysis or were responsible for selection decisions.

Click here to read today’s letter to Secretary Azar, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, and David S. Harris.
https://coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-subcommittee-seeks-transparency-conflicts-interest-and-vaccine-selection