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Despite the litany of quality control issues, Emergent won a $628 million contract from the Trump administration in June of 2020 to boost domestic vaccine manufacturing capabilities, making it one of the federal government's most important partners in manufacturing vaccines in the U.S.

Under that contract, Emergent has charged the government $27 million per month in reservation fees to maintain its \"readiness\" to manufacture vaccine ingredients, documents released by the House committee said. The government has paid $271 million of the contract so far, but partially halted payments since learning of the contamination.

At the hearing Rep. Waters also addressed the involvement of Dr. Robert Kadlec, a former senior adviser to then-President Trump, in awarding Emergent the coronavirus vaccine contract. Before joining the Trump administration, Kadlec accepted more than $360,000 in consulting fees from Emergent, according to documents released by the committee.

The committee memo said that Kadlec personally vouched for Emergent and \"requested in August 2020 that Emergent's contract receive a 'priority rating.'\" But on Wednesday, Kramer insisted he \"was not aware that Dr. Kadlec was directly involved in any award of this contract to Emergent.\"

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