Administration still spending thousands on salaries for 'pandemic response' bureaucrats
Wallace White
Daily Caller News Foundation
The Biden administration is spending over thousands of dollars to fund the salaries of several “Pandemic Response” employees, according to White House payroll records.
The White House pays six staffers with job titles that fall under the “Office Of Pandemic Preparedness and Response,” costing taxpayers $667,000, according to a 2024 payroll report released Monday from the Executive Office of the President. The staff members reportedly make between $56,500 and $139,500 a year.
Biden said the pandemic was “over” during a September 2022 interview on 60 Minutes, and the federal public health emergency officially expired on May 11, 2023, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy was created in July 2023 to take up COVID-19 related tasks and plan for possible future pandemics, according to the White House. The office is led by retired Air Force general Paul Friedrichs, according to Reuters.
Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) into law in 2021, authorizing massive stimulus spending to revive the sluggish COVID economy. The administration’s high spending, including the ARP, has contributed to heightened inflation, economists say.
Donald Trump’s administration had proposed spending between $530 billion and $870 billion in COVID relief, while Biden administration estimates are between $2 trillion and $4.2 trillion, according to a 2020 analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. As of January 2023, $90.5 billion of the $4.6 trillion allocated for COVID was unspent, while $23.7 billion expired, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Biden administration employs 565 staffers as of this year, and has spent $225 million since fiscal year 2021 on the highest payroll on record since former President Richard Nixon in 1971, according to Open The Books, who first reported the payroll numbers.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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