New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu slammed fellow Republican lawmakers for rejecting $27 million in federal vaccination funds, The Boston Globe reports.
The state’s executive council on Wednesday rejected $27 million in funds that would have boosted the state’s vaccination effort and allowed it to hire a public health manager and a dozen new workers to promote vaccination and address concerns about the vaccine.
But opponents wrongly argued that the grant would have required the state to comply with any “future directives” issued by the Biden administration, even though they previously approved grants with identical language.
Sununu and Attorney General John Formella, both Republicans, tried to assure the policymakers that the grant does not work like that to no avail.
“I appreciate that you have concerns, but they’re based on fantasy,” Sununu said before the vote.
Republicans reject funding:
All four Republicans on the council voted against the grant despite Sununu’s urging.
Councilor Janet Stevens said that the state could find the money elsewhere.
Councilor Cinde Warmington, the lone Democrat on the council, slammed her colleagues for pandering to a “small, misinformed minority.”
“Rejecting these funds would impede people who want to get the vaccine or boosters to readily access them, it would place additional burdens on our already stressed health care system and our health care workers, it would delay our recovery from this pandemic and it would prevent the full recovery of our businesses and our schools,” she said.
Sununu slams GOPers:
“You reject these federal dollars, the federal government doesn’t put it in a savings account. ... They’re going to send it to New York and California. The dollars are ours, for programs we already implemented,” Sununu warned the council before the vote. “So to say no makes no logical sense whatsoever.”
After the vote, Sununu slammed the council for showing a “reckless disregard for the lives we’re losing.”
“The people of New Hampshire know I call the balls and strikes as I see them, and today’s vote by members of my own party on the Executive Council was a total disservice to the constituents we serve," he said in a statement, slamming the council for turning “away the tools our state needs to fight and win this battle against COVID.”
