It’s Thursday, which means it’s deal-making day for the U.S. Senate because everyone wants to get out of town this evening for a long weekend at home. That’s compounded by having spring recess in sight—just one more week of work before they all head out for the Easter recess. So Thursday morning started with all sorts of talk about how the Senate is this close to resolving both COVID-19 funding and the Russian trade embargo bill.
Meanwhile, the House is doing stuff. They’ll vote Thursday on a stand-alone bill yanked out of the big Build Back Better plan to cap the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for people with insurance. Announcing the vote Wednesday, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that the exorbitant costs are “inexcusable” for “a lifesaving and life-sustaining drug whose costs [have] not increased and whose research costs have been amortized a very long period of time ago.”
Two Democrats from Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Lucy McBath, have been pushing to get the measure moving. The bill requires private health insurance companies to cap monthly costs at $35 or at 25% of the price the plan negotiated with manufacturer, whichever is less. The cap would kick in for some plans next year and be expanded to all private insurance by 2024. Warnock has been working with Sen. Jeanne Shaheed (D-NH) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on the Senate side, where there’s some potential for bipartisan support because some red states have already enacted caps.
“Republican states like Utah, Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama have put similar caps on insulin at the state level, so there should be overwhelming bipartisan support to pass my legislation,” Warnock said Wednesday. “I’ll keep using every option at my disposal to lower the cost of this lifesaving medication for Georgians.”
Speaking of lifesaving stuff, senators spent Wednesday evening negotiating on the COVID-19 funding bill the Biden administration says is essential to keep vaccines and treatment available. On Tuesday evening, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer scheduled a cloture vote with a shell of the bill as a place marker, with details to be filled in when a deal is reached. The cloture vote for that is Thursday afternoon.
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As of Thursday morning, the funding had been reduced from $15.6 billion to $10 billion, far less than what the White House has asked for: $22.5 billion. At issue since the COVID-19 funding was pulled out of the omnibus government funding bill that passed earlier this month has been the Republican insistence that no new money go to the measure. The original funding was going to be clawed back in part from money earmarked for state and local governments. When House Democrats from those states found out about it, they forced the measure to be dropped. Some 30 state and local governments were going to see funding cut, and most had already budgeted with that funding.
As of Thursday, negotiators had dropped $5 billion that was intended for boosting global vaccine supply. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations health subcommittee, says that the international funding could be picked up in a few months in another bill. Dropping it could be a big problem for the House, though. House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) pointed out that “No amount of domestic preparedness can continue with an onslaught of new variants,” and that the funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide those vaccines globally is essential. Knowing how the Senate works, the House absolutely shouldn’t be counting on Senate promises to get to it later.
But the funding for keeping vaccines and treatments flowing here is the short-term goal. The funding the Senate is talking about now is to purchase current vaccines and treatments and to continue research and development on future ones. It will also be paying for covering the costs of vaccines and treatments for patients. Where they intend to get the money wasn’t clear in reporting Thursday, but Schumer sounded optimistic Thursday morning.
“The gap has been narrowed greatly, and we’re intent on working with Republicans to cross the finish line because this is vital for our country if, God forbid, a new variant rises in the future, and that’s all too likely,” Schumer said. Republicans may or may not block the bill from moving forward Thursday afternoon. Yet another reminder that if Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema thought more about the country than themselves, Republicans wouldn’t be able to filibuster pandemic response.
The status of legislation to revoke permanent normal trade relations from Russia is just as murky. They finally negotiated a compromise with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who had been supposedly unilaterally blocking the bill for a few weeks on Wednesday. It turns out, however, Paul isn’t the only Republican standing in the way. Sens. John Cornyn (TX) and Dan Sullivan (AK) also have changes they want made, according to The Hill. Cornyn wants to authorize President Joe Biden to lend and lease military aid to Ukraine. Sullivan’s request is as of yet unknown.
If the COVID-19 bill moves forward Thursday night, it would slated for a vote next week. The confirmation votes—there will be a few—for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court will also be next week. The Ukraine aid/Russia embargo bill would have to be next week as well, and will have to be sent back to the House to pass again since the Senate will have made changes.
Since both chambers are slated to be out for two weeks, it could be the end of April before the Russia embargo bill is enacted. With the pace of the war in Ukraine, events might have completely changed by then.