Washington — The Biden administration is gauging potential support on Capitol Hill for new federal funding to pay for the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on more money to pay for testing, treatment programs and development of vaccines to fight the virus and future diseases.
How much money is needed and how exactly the funding would be provided by Congress remains unclear, but the issue has been the subject of discussions across Washington in recent weeks. The new money would come after Congress has already allocated record-setting sums totaling trillions of dollars to buoy the American economy and beleaguered state and municipal governments reeling from a lack of tax revenue caused by the COVID downturn. But with states and cities lifting COVID-related restrictions and the economy continuing to grow at a record pace, the political appetite for more federal funding is unknown.
A more focused request for new potential spending came up in meetings Tuesday between administration officials and congressional staff working on forthcoming federal spending legislation, people familiar with the meeting tell CBS News.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CBS News that the issue came up Tuesday as part of regular conversations with lawmakers and congressional staff about funding for the pandemic, “as well as the need for additional resources to support securing more life-saving treatments and vaccines, sustaining testing capacity, and investing in research and development of next-generation vaccines. These resources would help us continue expanding the tools the country needs to stay ahead of the virus and help us move toward the time when COVID-19 will not disrupt our daily lives.”
People familiar with the meeting said no formal or specific number was requested, nor did administration officials present a specific spending request.
But one person familiar with the talks said the new proposal could include funding for domestic vaccination and therapeutics, the administration’s COVID testing programs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ongoing surveillance programs and new money for future vaccine research.
The White House hasn’t ruled out asking for additional funding to pay for the pandemic response.
“We have what we need to fight this moment in the crisis. But we have continued discussions and engagements with Congress about what we may need,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month. “And part of what we’ve done to date is make sure we are not just preparing for the moment, but we are ahead.”
But the idea of adding additional COVID relief funding to the yearlong spending package is already meeting resistance among lawmakers who control the appropriations process.
“I’m not eager to add anything,” Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday. “It has taken several months of negotiation to get where we are.”
Leahy said he would consider any proposals from the administration, but that “it should probably be a separate bill.”
The request for additional funding comes as Leahy and other House and Senate negotiators are hoping to complete a final spending package by March 11 — when the current short-term spending plan expires — that would fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September. The agreement, which requires bipartisan support, would be the first of the Biden presidency and of unified Democratic congressional control. Democrats are eager to complete a spending package before the midterm election season begins in earnest and as polls continue to show they are likely to lose control of at least one congressional chamber.
One person familiar with the ongoing talks said there could be an appetite among GOP spending negotiators if the White House request is focused on new, unanticipated needs. But Republican negotiators have argued that there is still a considerable amount of unspent federal money provided to states, cities and school districts by relief packages passed last year and during the Trump administration. And there is bipartisan concern about how record-high inflation should shape the final agreement.
Nikole Killion and Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.
