The U.S. House of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), on Tuesday, unanimously passed a resolution in support of India as it faces a devastating COVID-19 wave.
The resolution, although largely symbolic, demonstrates support in Congress for the U.S.’s efforts to assist India fight the pandemic.
The resolution, introduced by House India Caucus co-chairs Brad Sherman (Democrat) and Steve Chabot (Republican), expresses solidarity with the people of India and recognises the Biden administration as well as the U.S. private sector and Indian Americans for their assistance to India.
The U.S. public and private sectors , including individuals, had provided over $500 million in assistance to India to fight this wave of the pandemic, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
The Biden administration is working with international vaccine access programme COVAX to determine how it will distribute 80 million doses of spare vaccine to other countries in the coming weeks.
The HFAC resolution also notes that India “lifted its export ban on certain therapeutics” in response to a request by the U.S. government last year when the pandemic was surging in America.
