“I am carefully reviewing the information the Biden administration has provided about funding required to respond to the coronavirus,” House Appropriations Chair Pink DeLauro
(D-Conn.) told POLITICO in a statement. “I will work with my colleagues to meet these important public health needs at home and around the world.”
A USAID spokesperson said in a statement that the call focused on “immediate resource needs to accelerate vaccine uptake globally, expand other critical health interventions to save lives, protect against the emergence and spread of future variants, and continue providing COVID-19 prevention, mitigation , and response support for vulnerable populations.”
An administration official echoed that the call focused solely on what’s needed to “meet immediate needs to continue vaccinating the world” and that they have to continue to “assess longer-term resource needs” and communicate them to Congress.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not comment on the record.
The prospects for this latest request remain daunting, given that there is already bipartisan resistance to a Covid supplemental spending bill.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sounding the alarm that their international pandemic response effort is swiftly running out of funds, risking the rise of future variants and prolonging the international crisis.