WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regarding the department’s continued lack of cooperation with the senator’s oversight of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) review process for determining who is eligible to receive compensation for COVID-19 vaccine injuries through its Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).

In his April 20, 2023 letter to Sec. Becerra, the senator included eleven requests for information about HRSA’s administration of CICP which provides compensation to eligible individuals injured by certain vaccines, medicines, and other treatments, including the COVID-19 vaccines. HHS’s June 23, 2023 response failed to provide complete answers to the senator’s inquiries.  

For nearly eight weeks, between June 28, 2023 and August 22, 2023, HHS ignored multiple emails from the senator’s office seeking clarity on when HHS would provide complete responses to the senator’s initial letter. Finally, on August 23, 2023, HHS confirmed that HHS’s inadequate and insufficient June 23, 2023 letter, “reflects the Department’s response to the Senator’s April 20th letter.”

“I am disappointed—but not surprised—by your agency’s continued lack of transparency regarding COVID-19 vaccine injuries. Your refusal to even explain the necessary criteria for an individual to receive CICP compensation for a COVID-19 vaccine injury reflects the dismissive attitude the Biden administration has consistently and callously displayed toward the vaccine injured,” Sen. Johnson wrote.

The senator called on Sec. Becerra to provide a complete response to his April 2023 requests by September 19, 2023.

The full letter can be found here.

Read more about the senator’s Sept. 5, 2023 letter to HHS Sec. Becerra in the Epoch Times.

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