The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday night sent Congress a total $2.5 billion emergency supplemental spending request to fight the coronavirus outbreak, which top U.S. government officials warned will inevitably spread across the nation.
“The administration believes additional federal resources are necessary to take steps to prepare for a potential worsening of the situation in the United States,” wrote Russell Vought, acting director of OMB, in a Feb. 24 letter sent to U.S. Vice President Michael Pence, in his capacity as president of the U.S. Senate, and copied to several federal lawmakers.
On Tuesday, Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, noted that the coronavirus situation was rapidly evolving and expanding. “We have very few cases in the United States and no spread in the community, but as more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder. Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country,” she said.
“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Messonnier said.
OMB requested an appropriation of $1.25 billion of emergency funding in the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue supporting critical response and preparedness activities, according to the letter.
In addition, the Trump administration requested that Congress permit the $535 million in emergency supplemental funding appropriated in the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2020, initially to prevent and treat Ebola, be transferred to the same HHS fund to instead be used for the nation’s COVID-19 response.
“Tremendous progress has been made on Ebola and the current national response priority should be COVID-19,” Vought wrote. “These two proposals would make $1.8 billion in new resources available for the current response.”
The funding would support all aspects of the U.S. response, he said, including public health preparedness and response efforts; public health surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory testing, and quarantining costs; advanced research and development of new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics; advanced manufacturing enhancements; and the Strategic National Stockpile.
“With the appropriation of new emergency funding, as well as the repurposing of FY 2020 Ebola resources, reprioritization of other FY 2020 funding across HHS, and contributions from other government agencies, across the government we expect to allocate at least $2.5 billion in total resources for COVID-19 response efforts,” Vought wrote.
Currently, no vaccine exists to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by a virus that has been named SARS-CoV-2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Jan. 31 declared a public health emergency for the United States to aid the nation’s healthcare community in responding to COVID-19 following a Jan. 30 “public health emergency of international concern” declaration made by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO as of today reported global case numbers of the coronavirus confirmed in 37 countries, including the U.S., Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and Japan, as well as the United Arab Emirates.
Also as of Feb. 25, the CDC reported 14 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, with a total of 426 people tested to date.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, earlier today presided over a hearing attended by Azar, who reviewed the FY 2021 budget request for HHS.
Sen. Blunt took an opportunity to question Azar about the OMB-submitted supplemental request, as well as the Infectious Disease Fund created by the subcommittee to provide flexible funding to allow HHS to immediately respond to an infectious disease outbreak.
“For the ongoing coronavirus response, you have used this money as intended,” Blunt said during the hearing in his opening remarks. “But what gives me pause about the Infectious Disease Fund in particular, and these flexible pots of funding in general, relates to both the broad authority [HHS] has to use them and the lack of accountability that seems to accompany them.”
Sen. Blunt said federal lawmakers need transparency into what HHS is spending now, as well as “a recognition that the funding flexibility we provide comes with an expectation of open communication even during an ongoing response.”
Regarding the administration’s supplemental request, Blunt said the Senate Appropriations Committee “will take that request seriously” and hopefully act quickly on it.
“As we work to assess whether the request provides the resources needed for a complete response, I hope you will work to provide timely answers,” Blunt told Azar, saying that he intends to ensure that “funding is not a limitation to the response.”
“And I want to make certain that we are looking at our response capabilities for the long game — and not, as we seem to do, leaping from one disease outbreak to the next.”
During Azar’s testimony, Blunt explained that the Senate Appropriations Committee is always, rightfully, concerned about “big transfers of money.”
Azar defended the administration’s total $2.5 billion emergency spending request during the subcommittee hearing.
“First, let me be clear, we’d like to focus on the top-line of the $2.5 billion in terms of the key strategic needs,” Azar testified. “We’ve put forward a supplemental that would allow offsets and transfers to pay for about half of that.
“But, of course, that’s Congress’ decision and we look forward to working with you if those choices make sense to you or if other sources, or offsets, or approaches that you would like to take,” he said.
Azar said he focused the supplemental request on five key critical success factors: Expanding the U.S. surveillance system for the coronavirus so that it’s comparable to the nation’s flu surveillance system, which he called the backbone of the nation’s response capabilities; more federal funding for state and local governments to support contact tracing, communications with impacted individuals, and laboratory test work; support for the research and development and the procurement of vaccines and therapeutics; and the acquisition of personal protective equipment, especially masks, and for the Strategic National Stockpile.
“So those five key areas are where the funding is going,” testified Azar.
The secretary also said that HHS is working closely with federal, state, local, and private-sector partners to mitigate “the virus’ potential spread in the United States, as we will likely see more cases here,” he testified.
Azar also said the National Institutes of Health today launched the first U.S. clinical trial for an investigational antiviral at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Senators, who just returned to the nation’s capital after a week-long recess, also received a classified briefing this morning on the government’s coronavirus response, according to several media outlets, while President Donald Trump attempted to assuage any related fears that might impact Wall Street.
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Trump tweeted on Monday.