ATLANTA — There's growing pressure Monday evening in response to an 11Alive investigation. More than a dozen members of Congress around the country are demanding answers from the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
A previous 11Alive investigation exposed a lack of accountability in the Countermeasures Compensation Program (CICP).
It’s a federal program to compensate people hurt by a medicine or medical device used to fight a pandemic. For more than half of the people who have filed claims with the CICP, that countermeasure is the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, 11Alive found families who had filed claims two years ago and were still waiting on a response. Lawmakers now want to know how the CICP plans to resolve the backlog, how it’s deciding what claims to approve, and how tax dollars are being spent. The CICP said it has only reviewed about five percent of the claims received so far.
“We are fighting to bring transparency to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. American families deserve to have their claims addressed quickly and fairly– and like so many aspects of the Biden administration during COVID, the government has been slow, secretive, and unresponsive. HHS Secretary Becerra must answer the American people now, or he will be answering to Congress very soon,” Congressman Rich McCormick said in a statement.
11Alive obtained a copy of a letter, signed by Congressman McCormick and a dozen other members of Congress to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. You can read it in full below: