White House says pandemic response may have to be scaled back after Congress drops COVID funding

After COVID relief funds were stripped from the spending bill on Wednesday this week, the White House and Democrats are left scrambling to figure out how to keep up a robust pandemic response, and how to pay for it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that the $15.6 billion in COVID funding had been dropped from the government funding bill. Republicans in Congress would rather see the money spent elsewhere, and for Democrats to find another way to pay for it.

The White House has been clear that without this funding, the United States’ COVID-19 response will falter in the coming weeks.

“Testing capacity … will decline this month. In April, free testing and treatments for tens of millions of Americans without health insurance will end. In May, America’s supply of monoclonal antibodies will run out,” said press secretary Jen Psaki in a Thursday briefing.

The funding that was dropped on Wednesday included $5 billion for global vaccine distribution. In order to pass the government funding bill this week and avert a government shutdown, Democrats were forced to acquiesce to taking the COVID relief money out of the package.