The United States has withheld a dues payment of $3.6 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for not conducting an independent audit of operations, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Wednesday.

USADA chief executive officer Travis T. Tygart said his group “fully supports this decision” by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy “as the only right choice to protect athletes’ rights, accountability and fair competition.”

WADA said that the US government owes a total of $3.625 million, with WADA’s overall 2025 operating budget at $57.5 million.

The move to hold back 2024 WADA dues comes in the wake of WADA’s controversial handling of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers who were later allowed to compete.

“Unfortunately, the current WADA leaders left the US with no other option after failing to deliver on several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of WADA’s operations, to achieve the transparency and accountability needed to ensure WADA is fit for purpose to protect athletes,” Tygart said.

“Because WADA failed to uniformly enforce the global rules in place to protect the integrity of competition and athletes’ rights to fairness, significant reform at WADA must occur to ensure this never happens again.”

In a statement, WADA confirmed the non-payment and noted the move would keep US representatives off its executive board for 2025.

“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that it did not receive the agreed contribution to WADA’s 2024 budget from the Government of the United States by the deadline of 31 December 2024,” WADA said.

“Under Article 6.6 of the WADA Statutes, Public Authority representatives from a country which has not paid its dues are ineligible to sit on the Foundation Board or the Executive Committee. Therefore, on 1 January of each year, any Foundation Board or Executive Committee member representing a country that has not paid its annual contribution for the previous year automatically loses their seat.”