The White House is asking for $45.8 billion in emergency funding to help federal agencies as they fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The request, submitted by the Office of Management and Budget to Congress late Tuesday and made public Wednesday, came on the same day the Trump administration presented a stimulus package that could total more than $1 trillion.
“With the pandemic growing, resource needs have also grown,” acting OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in a letter that came attached to a 118-page request. “The unprecedented mobilization the Administration has achieved has forced agencies to incur unanticipated costs. These costs must be met with a legislative response to ensure full operational capacity.”
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The request includes more than $11.5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services and more than $3.1 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $2 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An estimated $8.3 billion for the Defense Department would go toward protecting service members, their families, and civilian employees, as well as minimizing the virus’s impact on strategic mission readiness and other national response efforts.
The request “is not intended as a broad-based solution to the major economic dislocation wrought by the virus, nor is it the primary means by which the Federal Government plans to address the hardships of families, individuals, and communities who have been touched by the disease,” Vought wrote, distinguishing the package from the White House’s broader pandemic response efforts.
Congress approved a separate $8.3 billion emergency funding bill two weeks ago.
The letter revises upward funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by about $1.3 billion, to $8.3 billion.
The extra funding would go toward financing public health preparedness and response needs, as well as the Infectious Disease Rapid Response ‘Reserve Fund,’ a program created last year that provides the agency money to respond to an outbreak immediately, and more.
A further $440 million would go to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for basic and applied coronavirus and infectious disease research. The agency is leading the White House’s vaccine development efforts.
