Congressional negotiators reach deal on roughly $8 billion in emergency coronavirus funds
Source: Washington Post
Bipartisan congressional negotiators reached agreement Wednesday on a roughly $8 billion emergency spending bill to combat the coronavirus, racing to send it to President Trump’s desk by the end of the week. The deal must still be voted on by the House later Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday, and bipartisan support is expected. The deal is more than triple the size of the White House’s budget request from last week and includes funding for battling the virus’s spread in the United States and other countries.
The package would include more than $3 billion for the research and development of vaccines and other treatments. Other parts of the deal include $2.2 billion in new public health funding, close to $1 billion for medical supplies, health-care preparedness and community health centers, among other things. It would also would allow $7 billion in low-interest Small Business Administration loans for companies affected by the outbreak.
Of the money, $2.2 billion would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and another $3.1 billion would go to a public health and social services emergency fund. Another $1.25 billion would go to the State Department to assist in battling the spread of the coronavirus overseas. This would include evacuation expenses and humanitarian aid, among other things.
House leaders were aiming for a vote later Wednesday as urgency mounted to address the crisis, with growing numbers of cases reported from coast to coast. The final price tag on the bill dwarfed a $2.5 billion spending proposal the White House presented last week, which was divided between $1.25 billion in new funds and $1.25 billion taken from other accounts, such as an Ebola response fund. By contrast, the congressional bill is all new money.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/03/04/congress-coronavirus-emergency-spending/
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