Washington – A dispute in the House over how to pay $ 15.6 billion in additional funding to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Congress to seek relief through autonomous legislation after being withdrawn from the massive spending bill of the $ 1.5 trillion government that cleaned the lower chamber Wednesday.
But the prospects of both houses approving more money to fund the fight against COVID-19 appear bleak, as the $ 15.6 billion measure by House Democrats faces high odds of being approved in the split Senate. in equal parts.
It is unclear when the House will vote on the separate bill introduced by House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, on Wednesday as House Democrats left Washington for a retreat in Philadelphia. after approving the radical spending measure i legislation banning Russian oil imports in the United States Wednesday night.
The $ 15.6 billion is paid in part by returning unspent funds to the Treasury and does not include any compensation from coronavirus relief funds granted to state and local governments, according to the committee, which appears to be intended to respond to grassroots Democrats. oppose the initial strategy to pay for the latest pandemic relief proposal.
Additional funding to help the ongoing federal response to the pandemic was initially introduced as part of the expansion of the government’s spending measure, the result of months of Republican and Democrat credit negotiations in both houses. The package also includes $ 13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and its Eastern European allies following the invasion of Russian forces, aid that has broad bipartisan support.
But as the lower house moved toward a vote on the package, the first step in avoiding a partial government shutdown before Friday’s deadline, the $ 15.6 billion compensation dispute erupted publicly. and finally forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove the pandemic money from legislation.
Republicans demanded that COVID funding be fully offset by cuts elsewhere, and Democratic leaders agreed to cover half the cost by using leftover and unused funds from previous pandemic aid packages. This strategy was met with opposition from some House Democrats who said their states had plans to spend money on them in previous pandemic relief measures.
Minnesota Democrat Angie Craig called the compensation for COVID funding in the initial deal “completely unacceptable” and said her state could lose $ 253 million in pandemic aid.
“Someone has to figure out how to do it in a fairer way,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “Thirty of the 50 states have just had a portion of their COVID relief money that has already been put into a plan in a recovery position, so 50 of the states must participate here or we need to find out another way to do it. in a fairer way “.
Pelosi eventually removed pandemic funding from the bus spending package, a move he called “heartbreaking.” When asked about her Democratic colleagues ’rejection of the initial mechanism to offset the $ 15.6 billion through unused pledged assistance to states, the California Democrat said the party’s margins in the Senate meant that there had to be a compromise with Republican negotiators.
“We are growing with that. We are in a legislative process. We have a deadline to keep the government open. We had a lively negotiation. It has to be bipartisan,” he said.
The autonomous COVID funding bill is likely to be clarified by the House, where Democrats could lose up to four votes and still pass legislation. But his fate is less clear in the Senate because Democrats have a very thin majority and it takes 60 votes for legislation to move forward.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday in the Senate that he is “deeply disappointed” that the COVID funding application was withdrawn from the House bill, but promised that the Democrats “will continue to fight to make sure we get that money approved as soon as possible.”
However, three dozen Republicans in the Senate raised questions about the need for more relief from COVID in a letter to the White House last week and called for an account of how the federal government has allocated $ 5.7 trillion. in emergency aid already approved by Congress at the beginning of the pandemic.
The White House, however, does asked for $ 22.5 billion “to avoid disrupting ongoing VOCID response efforts”.
Reduced further by Congress with the $ 15.6 billion it presented after bipartisan and bicameral negotiations, the latest proposal includes $ 10.6 billion to secure treatments and vaccines against COVID-19, as well as develop new vaccines that protect against future variants. . It also directs about $ 4.5 billion to help fight COVID-19 worldwide.
Zak Hudak contributed to this report
- In:
- COVID-19[feminine[feminine
Add Comment