House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped the nearly $16 billion in COVID-19 relief from a massive $1.5 trillion spending bill after Democrats struggled with locking down votes due to a last-minute dispute within their party.
The move means that a portion of the domestic and international funds that aim to support the continued fight against the coronavirus pandemic will no longer come out of unspent state funding. While the decision paves the way for the House to pass other government and military funding, it jeopardizes the passage of the COVID relief fund in the Senate.
Dropping COVID Funding
This is because, in the Senate, the majority of Republicans are against the passing of new spending on the pandemic. They argue that officials should first provide a full accounting of the trillions that Congress has already provided in the last few years.
During a press conference, Pelosi acknowledged the impasse and said it was a situation that was obvious for a long time since the GOP has been opposed to COVID spending. The funding that has been scrapped is only half of what officials argue should be set aside for coronavirus programs such as testing, vaccination, and others, as per Politico.
Lawmakers have spent months negotiating the massive spending bill that includes roughly $13.6 billion in relief aid to Ukraine. Officials released the legislative text, which runs 2,741 pages, at around 1:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, shortly before House leaders were planning on pushing it through the chamber.
Officials are facing mounting pressure to pass the bill, which is known on Capitol Hill as the omnibus, before the Friday deadline. The date is when government funding is set to expire and the move is made to avoid a government shutdown.
Democratic Revolt
According to CNN, many Democrats, however, revolted over a plan to use funding from the American Rescue Plan, a pandemic relief bill that U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law last year, in order to offset the cost of COVID response programs in the new legislation. If passed, the provision would have affected 30 states and the Democratic lawmakers representing those regions argued it would be detrimental because it would take money away from them.
In a statement, Pelosi said that Republican insistence and resistance from some Democrats were the causes of her decision to remove COVID funding from the spending bill. The official said that it was heartbreaking for her to make the choice but argued that they will continue to fight for urgently needed COVID assistance.
Rep. Branda Lawrence was among those who opposed the legislation, saying that she would not tolerate the proposal. Shortly after Rep. Annie Craig left Pelosi's office on Wednesday, the Minnesota official said that the deal was cut behind closed doors and noted that when members found out, they immediately opposed it.
Craig, whose home state of Minnesota was among the 30 areas affected by the proposal, said that there was more than $250 million in funding that was at stake for her and her citizens, The Hill reported.
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