Republican senators are moving the goalposts on COVID-19 funding, the White House charged on Wednesday.
Senate negotiators appeared to reach a deal Monday to provide $10 billion in domestic aid to fight the disease, but Republicans in the chamber blocked the measure the next day, demanding that Democratic leaders allow a vote on an immigration-related amendment.
Armed with a massive binder that she said contained 385 pages of documents related to the funding, White House press secretary Jen Psaki lashed out at GOPers over the switch.
“We’ve given Congress a full accounting of every dollar that’s been spent on the COVID medical response and a full accounting of the entire American Rescue Plan,” she said while grasping the binder. “Unfortunately, even after Senate leadership agreed on a pared-down bipartisan bill, Senate Republicans decided to move the goalposts yet again and force amendment votes on something completely independent of our COVID response needs.”
Republicans previously said they needed a full accounting of previous COVID-19 funding allocations before they’d vote to allow new money to fight the virus.
“At this point, the question we have is whether Republicans are acting in good faith to provide the resources we need to save American lives, or if they’re just playing politics,” she said.
A number of prominent Washingtonians have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks, including Psaki herself, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. There have been no reports of hospitalizations stemming from the cases.
Psaki said a program that provided free vaccinations for uninsured Americans ended yesterday due to a lack of funding and that the supply of monoclonal antibodies would run out as soon as May.
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Several reporters asked about President Joe Biden’s attendance at large gatherings as the virus circulates in the district and whether such moves were wise.
“I think what the president is doing is he’s following CDC protocols and models,” she said. “That’s exactly what we’d recommend the rest of the country do.”
