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Biden administration diverts $2 billion in emergency COVID-19 funds to house migrant children at the border
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Biden administration diverts $2 billion in emergency COVID-19 funds to house migrant children at the border

The Biden administration pulled over $2 billion that was meant for COVID-19 health resources such as coronavirus testing and emergency medical supplies, and diverted the American taxpayer money to the current border crisis. President Joe Biden's Department of Health and Human Services sunk the funds into housing for the over 47,000 unaccompanied minors who have flooded across the U.S. southern border this year.

"The redirected funds include $850 million that Congress originally allocated to rebuild the nation's Strategic National Stockpile, the emergency medical reserve strained by the Covid-19 response," Politico reported on Saturday. "Another $850 million is being taken from a pot intended to help expand coronavirus testing, according to three people with knowledge of the matter."

Health and Human Services reportedly pulled about $436 million from a "range of existing health initiatives across the department."

The Biden administration yanked the money away from a fund that was intended to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile, which builds up a reserve of health "supplies, medicines, and devices for lifesaving care" so that there are plenty of health resources available in the event of a national health emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra petitioned Congress to grant another $905 million for the Strategic National Stockpile. Becerra said the SNS needs money for "personal protective equipment, ventilators, and medical supplies" to prepare for the "next public health crisis" or if the COVID-19 pandemic gets out of control again.

Politico noted that a total of $2.13 billion has been diverted from coronavirus health initiatives and been poured into the border crisis, which "exceeds the government's annual budget for the unaccompanied children program in each of the last two fiscal years."

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) reacted to the reallocation of coronavirus funds to the migrant crisis by telling the New York Post, "The president single-handedly created this crisis and is now misplacing billions in taxpayers' money. The answer to every problem is not to throw money at it."

The constant and overwhelming flow of migrants across the border has been a financial nightmare for the Biden administration, which has shelled out $86 million in contracts to house 1,200 migrant families in U.S. hotels. A report from earlier this month found that the Biden administration anted up $3 billion to house unaccompanied children since February. Analysis from the Washington Post in April revealed the Biden administration is spending $60 million a week to shelter migrant minors in federal facilities operated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In April, the highest number in two decades of migrants crossed the U.S. border.

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