Gridlock May Delay COVID Funds Until Fall – Or Longer –

WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States is heading for “many useless lives,” the Biden administration says if Congress fails to provide billions of dollars for the next wave of pandemics. The search for this money is still unclearThe latest victim of the blockade before the election to stop or kill democratic priorities.

President Joe Biden’s call for funding for vaccines, testing and treatment has sparked opposition from Republicans who have joined the fight against immigration policy. Congress is on hiatus and the next steps are unclear, despite criticisms by White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jah | Bad Consequences From “Every day we wait”.

Democrats in the House and Senate are debating how to decide the stalemate and even which House should vote first. The open question is whether they will get the GOP votes they need to pass the 50-50 Senate bill, and the prospects in a tightly divided chamber are also unclear.

“There is still an urgent need to get a COVID assistance package,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. “Very necessary.”

Optimists hope the event can begin once Congress returns next week. Pessimists say that without a quick fix, Democrats may not take enough action to make money until the early fall. It was then that they were able to push it into legislation that would likely be needed to fund the government – a bill that would prevent federal closures, would disrupt attention before the election that Republicans should have avoided altogether.

The pile of pro-democratic initiatives has grown this year, falling victim to opposition and the GOP insurgency by centrists like Senator Joe Mancin, DW.Va. Victims include bills on voting rights, health, environment, taxes, gun restrictions, abortion rights, police tactics, and supporters of then -President Donald Trump’s investigation into the 2021 Capitol storm.

While lawmakers passed a massive package that would fund federal agencies in September and help Ukraine fight Russian aggression, other priorities have died or changed, though Congress is likely to shrink back to those. day of the Democrats. Republicans are in favor of a Control House victory in the November elections and could even win the Senate, and Democrats ’frustration is obvious.

“He’s not moving yet,” Senator Mazi Hirono, of Hawaii, said of Biden’s latest $ 22.5 billion request for COVID-19, which he originally sent to Congress three months ago. “But he has no reasonable firearms law or the right to vote.”

“50-50 Senate is bad,” he said.

Officials say the lack of new funds puts the United States lagging behind other countries already queuing up for supplies needed for the fall and winter. This forced Jha to plan for Congress not to issue new money, threatening a painful choice of what to do if there were not enough vaccines or therapies for all who need it.

“That was horrible,” Jham told reporters recently. “I think if that happened, we would see a lot of unnecessary damage.”

Congress has allocated $ 370 billion to procure supplies, combat research and other public health initiatives to combat the pandemic, according to administration data obtained by the Associated Press. Documents show that on April 5 about 14 billion dollars had not been spent or had not been set aside in the contracts, it was serious money, but the administration says the amount was less than the final requirement.

Most Republicans are skeptical of funding further pandemics. “I find it hard to believe that there isn’t enough money and not enough flexibility,” said Senator Kevin Kramer, RN.D.

For the always confused Senate unconditionally, but not surprisingly, an unresolved puzzle for Democrats is immigration.

Senate Republicans are calling for a vote to change the pandemic law while maintaining Trump-era restrictions that made it easier for migrants to enter the United States under COVID-19.

A federal judge prevented Biden from removing those restrictions. Liberals want Congress to remove the attacks, but moderate Democrats face strict re-election in both houses, wanting to vote to keep it.

Result: a split process between the two ideological factions of Democrats and questions from party leaders on how to resolve them and force a pandemic package.

Adding to their work is the dispute between the House and Senate Democrats as to why the battle against COVID-19 remains unresolved.

Senate Democrats said the $ 15.6 billion bipartisan pandemic compromise was reached in March before the House Progressive Democrats rebelled against spending cuts to pay for it. Remove money from tracks. “We’re waiting for the house to send us something,” Sumer said last week.

Democrats in the House say that even if they did, the biggest obstacle would be the Senate, where the House’s standard 60-vote threshold would require 10 parliamentary votes. They pointed to the April agreement between Sumer and the senator. Between Mitt Romney, the $ 10 billion cash of R-Utah Covid-19 collapsed After Republicans called for an immigration vote.

“We want to end COVID-19, but the only obstacle right now is the U.S. Senate,” House Senate Majority Leader Stan Hoyer, D-Md, told reporters recently.

Republicans are waiting a step after Democrats.

“At this point, I think more than half of our members are opposed to whatever happened. So the question is, what are you doing to make it acceptable to 10- or 12-inch Republican senators,” he said. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the GOP leadership. “And I don’t know.”