Lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the management of the national stockpile in a letter to the federal government’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) on Thursday.
In the six-page letter, the Republican leaders of the committee question actions taken over the last few years by ASPR, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, to manage the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), an initiative to stockpile medicines for emergencies.
The letter says ASPR is stockpiling expired medicines as well as failing to budget and manage SNS contracts and inventory. The committee has given ASPR a deadline of May 23 to answer its questions ahead of congressional budget hearings.
Drugs in the SNS, including medicines for influenza and smallpox vaccines, are past their FDA-approved expiration date and are “decades-old,” which “raises serious concerns,” according to the letter. Not only does this bring into question the medicines’ efficacy, but it also affects public opinion, the committee wrote.
“Parents may be reluctant to give their child flu medication that expired before the child was born,” they wrote.
Also, according to the committee’s leaders, ASPR let $850 million in emergency funds for the SNS go unused, and they were eventually withdrawn by the Office of Management and Budget.
“The failure to commit funds in a timely and competent manner is particularly frustrating,” the letter states.
Further, committee leaders argue that ASPR mismanaged contracts, for instance paying an “unusually” high price for disposable medical gowns, which was protested by the agency and the contract reassessed. The contract has not been successfully reissued.
A GAO report on May 2, surveying 62 jurisdictions, further showed HHS faced difficulties in managing the SNS during public health crises like during the Covid-19 pandemic. For instance, some tribal officials said there was a lack of sites to store medicine supplies.