Bid to Clear $10 Billion COVID-19 Funding Package Stalls in Senate
- April 08, 2022
A $10 billion bipartisan COVID-19 supplemental appropriations package that Senate leadership unveiled earlier this week hit a major roadblock over a dispute about maintaining border restrictions put in place during the pandemic that the Biden administration plans to lift next month.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who spearheaded negotiations on the aid package, announced April 4 an agreement for an additional COVID-19 funding to purchase vaccines and therapeutics, maintain access to testing, and continue vaccine research for future variants. Democrats had hoped for quick passage of the supplemental funding measure before a scheduled two-week recess for Congress.
The administration backed the package even though it was well below the $22.5 billion it originally requested. The compromise also stripped out $5 billion in global health funding that was included in an earlier $15.6 billion package, which was left out of the recently enacted omnibus spending bill over a standoff about offsetting state and local funding.
The $10 billion funding compromise stalled over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement April 1 that it was terminating the Title 42 public health order that allowed border officials to prevent migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering the United States. The immigration restrictions were put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Citing vaccines and therapeutics that are now available to fight COVID-19, CDC said that the order was no longer necessary. The termination will go into effect May 23 to give the Department of Homeland Security enough time to implement COVID-19 mitigation protocols, including providing vaccines to migrants, CDC said.
Republicans, and reportedly several Democrats, wanted a vote on an amendment to extend the restrictions before considering the COVID-19 aid package.