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Administration infighting over the national stockpile
The health department’s preparedness office overseeing national stockpiles of emergency medical gear is trying to cement its Covid-era power — and meeting with congressional skepticism.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response has seen demands for protective gear and therapies rapidly expand between the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 mpox outbreak, and now the spread of avian flu among cows. But its management of the nation’s medical stockpile — and its efforts to replenish depleting stock — are under fresh scrutiny from lawmakers. In particular, Republicans want answers on the $850 million that Congress clawed back from ASPR’s budget, and on why that cash wasn’t spent if the stockpile needed it so badly, my co-author Sarah Owermohle reports.
