The White House, perhaps realizing it has been caught completely flat-footed on the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, is floating the idea of creating a "coronavirus czar" to coordinate the U.S. response. Or not, since it seemed to be news to Health Secretary Alex Azar Wednesday morning. As if one person could mitigate the loss of two entire teams and billions of dollars in funding dedicated to combatting global health threats. The administration is preparing to request $2.5 billion from Congress for the effort, just $1.25 billion in new funding and the rest reapportioned.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer have rejected that as entirely inadequate. The Senate Democrats' just released a request of $8.5 billion to combat the virus. "We've seen no sign that President Trump has any plan or urgency to deal with the spread of the coronavirus—we need real leadership and we need it fast," Schumer said in introducing his request. When asked about Trump's assertion earlier in the weeks that the virus was "under control" in the U.S. Pelosi told CNN "I don't think the president knows what he's talking about—once again."
House Democrats "are still assessing what amount of funding is needed" because of a lack of information from the administration, and are developing a request of their own, likely to be in keeping with Schumer's. Pelosi called the White House's proposal for $2.5 billion "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency." As a point of comparison, the Obama administration asked for $6 billion, and received $5.4 billion, to assist in the 2014 Ebola crisis, for a disease that was comparatively well-contained.
Schumer's request includes "$1.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including for the Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund and Global Health Security; $3 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund; $2 billion set aside for state and local reimbursements; $1 billion for the USAID's Emergency Reserve Fund; and $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Development program."
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