Shaheen, Hassan Announce More Than $30.6 Million in Supplemental Vaccine Funding Heading to New Hampshire
**Funding comes following Shaheen’s leadership to address a discrepancy in funding that led NH to receive less federal support than originally estimated for vaccine and tracing efforts**
(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) announced that New Hampshire will receive an additional $30,687,981 in vaccine administration grants from the December 2020 COVID-19 response package and the American Rescue Plan. These grants come following Shaheen’s successful push along with Senator Hassan to secure additional vaccine funding through the American Rescue Plan for small states like New Hampshire, to correct a flawed formula from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that previously shortchanged small states on critical federal funding for vaccines and testing.
“Vaccines are essential for New Hampshire to beat this deadly virus and begin the process of reopening our communities. That’s why I’m pleased to see the CDC deliver more than $30.6 million to New Hampshire to support our vaccination efforts after we were denied our fair share of funding because of a flawed formula,” said Shaheen. “I led the push to correct the funding shortfall created by the previous formula, and I’ll keep working to make sure New Hampshire has every resource for robust vaccination efforts so we can get to the other side of this crisis.”
“Ramping up vaccine distribution efforts will be key to slowing the spread of this deadly virus, returning children to the classroom full-time, and getting more parents back to work,” said Hassan. “Senator Shaheen and I helped ensure that smaller states like New Hampshire received their fair share of vaccine funding in the year-end package, and now New Hampshire is getting critical federal funding to our state as a result of this fix. This significant funding will help save lives and strengthen our economic recovery, and I will continue working to ensure that New Hampshire receives the resources that it needs to continue to address this crisis.”
The $30,687,981 heading to New Hampshire includes today’s installment of $12,748,714 awarded through the December funding package, as well as another $17,939,267 that will arrive through subsequent installments starting in April. These funds come from both the December 2020 COVID-19 response package and the American Rescue Plan. These installments build on Shaheen and Hassan’s announcement from January, in which they welcomed nearly $12.3 million for vaccine administration funding in New Hampshire.
When all installments have been completed for the state-focused COVID-19 vaccination grant awards from the December 2020 package and the American Rescue Plan, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will have received $42,974,130 to boost vaccinations. This robust funding for the state’s vaccine effort is possible thanks to the Senators’ advocacy to address the shortfall in the CDC’s formula. This funding comes in addition to the $40.9 million in school-focused testing funding from the American Rescue Plan that the New Hampshire delegation announced on March 18th. You can find a full breakdown of the grant numbers here.
In January, Shaheen led a bipartisan letter supported by Hassan to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding the formula used to distribute federal funding to states for COVID-19 vaccine administration efforts, which left smaller states at a distinct disadvantage. They requested that the CDC use available discretionary funds to bolster funding for states like New Hampshire, which received significantly fewer dollars under the revised allocation method for these grants relative to what the states would have received under traditional approach to allocations. Earlier this month, Shaheen and Hassan successfully secured a provision in the American Rescue Plan to provide funding for vaccination efforts in smaller states, eliminating the shortfall the previous formula had created.
Shaheen and Hassan are members of the bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers that has steered negotiations of COVID-19 relief. The COVID-19 relief bill signed into law in December contained Shaheen- and Hassan-negotiated legislation that provided urgently needed assistance to American students, families, businesses, workers and health care providers impacted by the public health and economic crises. Senator Shaheen had a similar leadership role as a negotiator for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was signed into law last March and secured New Hampshire an initial $1.25 billion to assist with COVID-19 response efforts.
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