Lawmakers have reached an “agreement in principle” on a $10 billion COVID-19 relief package, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said Thursday, as President Joe Biden and the White House continue to put pressure on Congress to provide what they call much-needed aid.
But some Democrats are not happy with the size of the package, which is less than half of the $22.5 billion President Biden initially asked for, and far below the $15.6 billion that was abruptly stripped from the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill passed earlier this month.
“We've reached an agreement in principle on all the spending and all of the offsets,” Romney, the lead Republican negotiator on the effort, told reporters Thursday. “It's entirely balanced by offsets.”
Details on the particulars of the plan are scant, but Romney told reporters that funding would come “almost exclusively” from money redirected from the American Rescue Plan, President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
The Utah Republican said they aim to pass the bill next week, and predicted it will get “a lot more than 10” Republican votes — referring to the 60 needed to overcome the legislative filibuster in the Senate.
“I believe we get more than 10 Republicans,” Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said Thursday. “Maybe even significantly more.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., later Thursday delayed a scheduled procedural vote on the measure "as we getting close to a final agreement that would garner bipartisan support.”
"We are working diligently to finalize language, scoring, and a final agreement on what should be funded in the final COVID package, both domestic and international,” Schumer said, adding: “As a sign of good faith and to encourage us to come to a final agreement, I will reschedule today’s procedural vote to a later time.”
The text of the bill needs to be written and scored by the Congressional Budget Office before the Senate can consider the measure.
Schumer on Thursday touted the bipartisan nature of the negotiations in recent days.
“The gap has been narrowed greatly and we are intent on working with Republicans to cross the finish line because this is vital for our country if, God forbid, a new variant arises in the future, and that's all too likely,” he said.
“We would like considerably more money than our Republican colleagues, but we need to reach 60 votes to get something passed through the Senate and so we are going to push as hard as we can,” he continued, adding: “We're getting closer and closer, but the sooner we get this deal done, the better for the country."
But some Democrats are not happy with the agreement, specifically taking issue with the removal of some funding to help aid the global vaccination effort.
“If the Senate does this, I am concerned many others and I may not be able to support the bill,” Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote on Twitter. “We can’t end the pandemic without global vax funding -- period.”
Romney told reporters that there “may be $1 billion” to aid international COVID-19 response efforts, a far cry from the $5 billion Democrats were hoping for.
At a press conference earlier Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., slammed Republicans for slimming down the bill, calling it “shameful.”
“I think what the Republicans are doing is, is either they don't care, or they don't know, but it is wrong,” Pelosi said, adding: “This is not enough money, we're going to even need more money.”
“This is shameful,” she said. "We have to get the money. It's not going to last us past probably June 1.”
"It's a problem,” Pelosi added. “It's a shame."
President Biden has implored Congress to take action in recent days, with warnings coming from the White House in recent weeks that programs would be severely curtailed if additional funding is not passed.
Biden on Wednesday urged Congress to come to an agreement on the additional funding, warning it could stall funding for second booster shots if they are approved for more Americans, plus he said it could hinder testing capacity.
"Congress has to provide the funding America needs to continue to fight COVID-19," Biden said. "We're already seeing the consequences of congressional inaction."
"Americans are back to living their lives again. We can't surrender that now," he said. "Congress, please act. You have to act immediately."
Biden also said the lack of funding has already impacted the distribution of COVID treatments.
"Take monoclonal antibodies, for example. They've helped save lives. This isn't partisan, it's medicine. But Congress hasn't provided enough money to keep purchasing these monoclonal antibodies," he said. "We've had to cancel planned orders and cut the supply we're sending to the states.”
Biden said the supply would run out by the end of May without more funding.
"Congress, we need to secure additional supply now, now," Biden said. "We can't wait until we find ourselves in the midst of another surge to act. It will be too late. And we also need this funding to continue our efforts to vaccinate the world."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told Spectrum News that the funding is essential to help combat future pandemics.
"We don't know what's going to happen in the future," Dr. Fauci said. "And as long as there's a lot of virus that is being spread throughout the world, there's a danger that there will be variants, and we've got to be prepared for them, prepared that when they come, we make sure people get vaccinated, they get tested."
Dr. Fauci's comments come as the omicron subvariant BA.2, also known as “stealth omicron,” is now dominant in the United States. Fifty-five percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are now BA.2, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 39% last week, and up from 7.4% a month ago.
A new report released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy think tank, said that many Americans, largely those uninsured, would be impacted if Congress does not approve another round of COVID-19 emergency funding.