Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is now on board with White House proposals for $22.5 billion in federal spending to combat COVID-19 because, as she claimed, “the threat has changed” since Republicans put an offer of $10 billion for funding on the negotiation table, according to a new report.
Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman tweeted Thursday morning that “Pelosi says she is beginning the Covid negotiations asking for $22.5 billion — in line w the initial W.H. request. Senate Republicans have suggested $10 billion is their number.”
“Since the $10 billion was discussed, the threat has increased,” Pelosi reportedly said.
PELOSI says she is beginning the Covid negotiations asking for $22.5 billion — in line w the initial W.H. request. Senate Republicans have suggested $10 billion is their number.
“Since the $10 billion was discussed, the threat has increased.”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 12, 2022
On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported that “The White House is currently predicting that 100 million cases of COVID-19 will hit America in the fall and winter unless the federal government receives billions in taxpayer funding to combat the virus.”
The Daily Wire also noted that the $10 billion figure negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Republicans in April was agreed upon, but was still in the process of being finalized.
The GOP wanted “to add language into the coronavirus bill that would prevent the administration from lifting Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic public health policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and blocks them from seeking asylum,” The Hill noted.
Initially, the federal COVID-19 funding was also going to be tied into a spending deal with aid for the Ukrainian war effort against Russia. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), however, told reporters that he was able to convince the president to make the funding for both causes separate.
“I think we all agree the most important thing going on in the world right now is the war in Ukraine,” McConnell said to reporters on Tuesday. “I had a chance to call the president last week and request that the Ukraine package move by itself and quickly. He said, let me think it over. He called back in about 15 minutes and agreed that we need to do this for Ukraine only, and quickly.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden commemorated the deaths of 1 million Americans who had been infected with COVID-19 by calling upon Congress to increase funding for pandemic-related expenses.
“As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow,” the president said in a statement. “To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible, as we have with more testing, vaccines, and treatments than ever before. It’s critical that Congress sustain these resources in the coming months.”