House and Senate lawmakers are struggling to agree on the terms of an approximately $8 billion federal spending bill responding to the coronavirus outbreak, including the development of a critical vaccine and test kits.
House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and leading appropriator, said the two parties disagree on adding language to the bill that would prevent pharmaceutical companies from setting high prices and making “a huge profit” from coronavirus testing or vaccines.
Leahy and Schumer said millions of dollars in taxpayer funding would be poured into helping pharmaceutical companies rapidly develop a vaccine for the virus and that it had to be available to everyone.
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“We are not going to then say to the companies, after we taxpayers have paid for all of this, ‘Now go out and make a huge profit,’” Leahy said, recounting discussions among the appropriators. “That’s not going to happen.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters Tuesday the House could vote as early as Wednesday on a bipartisan agreement. But so far, an accord has not been reached.
Schumer blamed the holdup on the disagreement about vaccine pricing and profits.
“That is one of the disputes holding up the bill right now,” Schumer said. “Our Republican friends don’t want to see the kind of limitations Sen. Leahy and I want.”
Vice President Mike Pence separately briefed Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats Tuesday afternoon about the Trump administration’s coronavirus response.
Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said the Trump administration is not disputing the price tag of between $7 billion and $8 billion.
“It depends on the restrictions or limitations on it,” Short said. “On how you use the funds.”
A top House Democratic aide said lawmakers hope an agreement on a coronavirus funding measure will be reached by Tuesday night, which would allow the House to vote on the bill as early as tomorrow, followed by the Senate on Thursday.
“We want to make sure that prices for drugs the government pays to develop are fair and reasonable and that the government takes steps to make vaccines and treatments available to all Americans regardless of their ability to pay,” the aide said.
Schumer said the two sides “are making good progress on the legislation.”
During the briefing Tuesday, Pence and Trump administration officials updated lawmakers on the effort to ramp up the distribution of coronavirus test kits by the end of the week.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who was at the meeting with Pence, said lawmakers were informed that 2,500 kits, each with 500 coronavirus tests, would be distributed around the country by the end of the week.
