With its big spending bill stalled, the Biden administration appears poised to try again for further COVID-19 relief funding.
Congress has already approved $6 trillion in spending to treat and test for the virus, and Republicans are unlikely to support more, meaning the president could be in for yet another partisan battle on Capitol Hill.
BIDEN STILL CALLING FOR TESTING AND VACCINE REQUIREMENTS AFTER SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN MANDATE
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this week he expects “additional sums requested” from the White House, “substantial sums to be requested, to deal with and confront and try to contend with the coronavirus that has afflicted us now for almost two years.”
The Washington Post also reported that the Biden administration is working on a proposal to spend more on hospitals, tests, and inoculations. Attempts to contact the White House for further comment were not successful.
President Joe Biden will be looking for a win after a rough few weeks. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin effectively killed off the Build Back Better plan in December, and his centrist counterpart Kyrsten Sinema ended the voting rights push in January with a passionate defense of the Senate filibuster.
If Biden pushes for more virus-related funding, he will again meet resistance.
Biden spoke about COVID-19 mitigation efforts Jan. 13, pushing his long-standing “pandemic of the unvaccinated” stance while nonetheless urging several other mitigation measures.
“Next week, we’ll announce how we are making high-quality masks available to the American people for free,” he said, holding a mask. “We’re on track to roll out a website next week where you can order free tests shipped to your home.”
The speech did not mention funding, though the White House has said the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan will pay for measures such as additional testing in schools.
Hoyer said some of new emergency funding would be dedicated to testing, preferably for free, expanding vaccinations both domestically and abroad, and providing more money for schools.
Republicans are asking for more details about how money from the American Rescue Plan and other virus-related bills was spent and how much of it remains. Congress has already approved $80 billion for COVID-19 testing overall.
A trio of House Republicans sent the Biden administration a letter accusing the White House of a “lack of transparency and failure to answer the most basic questions” about the status of the $6 trillion approved to date. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee claim that less than a dime of every dollar in previous bills has been spent on healthcare, and Republican senators are asking for more details on how existing funds are being used to keep schools open.
“What concerns us is that, as of Dec. 30, 2021, 86 percent of funding remains unspent by K-12 school districts and 36 percent remains unspent by colleges and universities,” Sens. Roy Blunt and Richard Burr wrote to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “With more than $266 billion specifically appropriated for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to ensure the continuity of learning during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and more than $191 billion currently available, where is the disconnect between the department and schools?”
But with some schools closing and the latest wave of COVID-19 infections peaking, there are calls for more funding for healthcare, schools, and restaurants that are trying to remain open. As with Build Back Better and election overhauls, winning Republican support is going to be a tall order for the White House.
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The federal government is operating under a continuing resolution that is due to expire Feb. 18. Debates over where and how much additional COVID-19-related spending is needed is just one of several issues that will be debated in the coming weeks as the deadline looms.
