On August 11, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell sent a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stating that she will use her executive authority to transfer money from within the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) budget for the Zika response and to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) so that progress on clinical trials for the first of several vaccines is not delayed. In total, Burwell is authorizing $34 million to be moved from within the NIH and $47 million to BARDA. "Reallocating NIH resources is not consistent with a strategy to provide maximum support to the important work that our nation's leading scientists are performing, but the lack of a clean, bipartisan Zika funding bill has left me no choice but to move forward with this action at this time," Burwell  wrote . With the additional money, work can begin to prepare trial sites for the second phase of a clinical trial. The first phase began last week, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at a press briefing Thursday. These preparations include hiring employees, renovating clinics, and preparing nurses at trial sites, both in the United States and abroad. The transfer means Fauci's agency will be set for funding through November or December, he said. But eventually, if new funding isn't allocated by Congress, HHS will face a similar challenge in the coming months, when additional vaccines will begin clinical testing. Within the NIH, Director Francis Collins is likely to move a similar proportion of money from different departments for Zika, Fauci said.