White House payroll documents show that multiple employees from the Pandemic Response office are still being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Biden administration.
The Executive Office of the President issued a payroll report for 2024 at the end of June, detailing the six personnel paid by the White House. Their positions are associated with the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and the total cost to taxpayers is $667,000. According to reports, the annual salary range for the staff is $56,500 to $139,500.
The federal public health emergency formally ended on May 11, 2023, as reported by the Department of Health and Human Services. Biden announced during an interview with 60 Minutes in September 2022.
Under the leadership of former Air Force General Paul Friedrichs, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy was established in July 2023. The White House reports that this office is responsible for matters pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as preparations for such events in the future.
To stimulate the flagging COVID economy, Biden authorized substantial stimulus expenditure in 2021 with the signing of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP). Economists argue that the ARP and the administration’s heavy expenditure have pushed inflation rates higher.
A study by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget indicates that the Biden administration was spending between $2 trillion and $4 trillion on COVID relief, while the Trump administration had suggested spending between $500 billion and $900 billion.
As of January 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that $90.5 billion of the $4.6 trillion allotted for COVID-19 had not been spent, while $23.7 billion had expired.
In a March testimony before a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee in D.C. by the inspectors general of the Labor Department, the Treasury Department, and the Small Business Administration (SBA), it was discovered that at least $276 billion in COVID-19 relief funds were misappropriated and lost.
According to Labor Department Inspector General Larry Turner, $76 billion that was supposed to go toward unemployment insurance was instead spent on false claims. He said the $76 billion fraud estimate was low since it didn’t account for funds established by the 2020 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. He said that once money goes out the door under fraud, it’s difficult to claw it back.
