But package Reduced more than $ 30 billion by federation officials who initially claimed the $ 22.5 billion needed to be placed on Capitol Hill by the White House last month, to $ 15.6 billion Congress leaders were trying to add to that. 2022 Spending Bill.
Now $ 10 billion is on the table and money is being spent on global vaccination attempts and testing, treatment and vaccination of uninsured people, but in addition to the guarantee, the Biden administration will soon need Congress to do it all over again.
“I think they should be back in 60 to 90 days,” Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the Senate GOP Health Director, told POLITICO. “I do not think anyone thinks it will last until summer and may not last until summer.”
Public health leaders warn that this short-term cash flow creates gaps in preparedness, leaving millions vulnerable to the growth of the new Covid. Millions of low-income and uninsured people are most at risk in the US Most of whom are people of color – which rely on government tests, life-saving treatments and vaccines, programs that require a stable and predictable flow of funding.
The White House has not answered questions about how long funding will last. But at an event in Washington on Monday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becker stressed that the Senate agreement could force his agency to choose between priorities such as vaccines, therapies and testing.
“It will not be enough for us to cover the costs and end the fiscal year,” he said, referring to the government’s October funding deadline.
But forming a coalition to spend billions by the end of this year is likely to be more difficult due to the tight congressional calendar, due to the ongoing pandemic fatigue and party disagreements over whether to spend and how much to spend on both domestic and international public health emergencies.
“I’m afraid that if it’s only $ 10 billion, we’ll have to go through something else for a long time, but I’m also afraid it will only get worse,” he said. Chui Garcia (D-Ill.), The Vice President of the Progressive Group of Congress told POLITICO. “People are less and less inclined to see the potential threat of a new wave. It seems we have not really worked out all the lessons of the pandemic. ”
Leader of the Senate majority Chuck SumerAnnouncing the bipartisan agreement on Monday, he was quick to point out that more was needed “this spring,” saying the deal was “too short for what we really need to keep us safe.”
Sumer argued that the next bill should also meet international needs and integrate global Covid assistance with more funding for Ukraine and worldwide food insecurity.
But in the current deal, without global money, politicians fear that the delay in the U.S. pandemic operation abroad will continue indefinitely.
“Doing nothing to slow the global spread of COVID-19 is nonsense,” said the Senate Appropriations Officer. Patrick Lehi (D-wt.) Warned Monday. “As the virus continues to mutate and destroy abroad, more Americans will become ill and die.”
For months, U.S. Agency for International Development officials have been warning lawmakers that they will soon run out of money to facilitate vaccinations in low- and middle-income countries, and have backed at least $ 19 billion to fight global coinage.
That amount was negotiated for up to $ 5 billion in March, amid disagreements over Capitol Hill over how to pay for the package. That, too, would not be enough to establish an agency A new program to help increase vaccination rates Africa’s 11 low-income countries and officials have been waiting for a return to Congress for Covid’s additional global funding for early summer.
Now that Congress has cut $ 5 billion from an additional package, USAID is expected to be able to help millions of people get their first doses of the vaccine by June alone. After that, USAID partners, including local health agencies and COVAX, the global vaccine facility, will have to seek additional funding to help countries deliver and administer Covid-19 immunization, two people said.
An airport employee stands next to a modern corovirus vaccine box donated by the U.S. Government through COVAX after arriving at Nairobi Airport in Kenya on August 23, 2021. | Brian Inganga / AP Photo
“In the event of a ban on additional funding, the United States should turn its back on countries in need of emergency assistance to increase vaccination rates,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in a statement. “If we do not help these countries acquire weapons, we will leave their populations vulnerable and allow the virus to continue mutating in new, potentially more dangerous variants.”
Funding for Global Covid comes at a time when the Biden administration is planning a potential increase this spring as Omicron’s sub-variant, BA.2, leads to an increase in cases and hospitalization in Europe, Hong Kong and China.
Global health leaders, USAID officials, and lawmakers say they are concerned these and other new options will continue in the coming months and travel to the U.S. if the world does not help increase vaccination rates.
“The world, frankly, did not contain the virus and did not defeat it,” Gail Smith, who led the State Department’s Global Covid-19 response last year, told POLITICO last week. “How can we be sure that the world can live with it?” And not just those countries that can reach 70 or 75 percent [vaccination]? ”
On the domestic front, funding delays have forced the federal government to stop purchasing sufficient additional booster doses for all Americans and to reduce the purchase and distribution of monoclonal antibody therapies and antiviral pills to high-risk covid patients. He also has Disrupted a new treatment study And stopped paying doctors across the country for testing, treatment and – from Tuesday – vaccination of the uninsured. Even if Congress manages to approve funding this week, public health experts say there is a good chance all of these threats will reappear in just a few months, undermining the stability and continuity of the fight against the virus.
Adrian Casalotti, head of government and public relations at the National Association of Country and City Health Officials, for example, pointed to the expiration of a program that pays doctors to examine and treat vulnerable patients at Covid, arguing that these doctors may not return. The program even if the amount is renewed soon.
“We are losing confidence in the medical community and doctors are not sure the carpet will be removed from them again if they rejoin the program, and we are also losing confidence in the public,” he said. “If you are a low-income person who goes to the same test site for two years and suddenly closes it or throws it away, you will not return, even if it reopens.”
Some lawmakers have told POLITICO that additional funding could be added to the bipartisan pandemic preparedness bill Sens. Pete Murray (D-Wash.) And Richard Bury (RN.C.) cultivate.
But these options are likely to be difficult to sell for many Republicans who were skeptical of approving the current package and seeking to offset it by cutting back on other government programs.
You. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), A senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters that he and his GOP colleagues could be sure to spend more only if the pandemic significantly worsens.
“I believe that from my experience here, Congress is responding positively to a real emergency or a real crisis, especially at the scale of a new option,” he said.
Public health officials and Democrat lawmakers say waiting until a new option arrives to approve more funding would be catastrophic. .
“It gets tougher later this year,” Sen. Tim Kane (D-va.) Confessed. “But I do not know why we want to miss this opportunity.”
