President Obama on Tuesday urged the lame-duck Congress to approve roughly $6 billion in emergency funding to fight the deadly Ebola virus, saying “we cannot beat” the disease without a greater financial investment from lawmakers.
“The urgency remains. If we are actually going to solve this problem for ourselves, we have to solve it in West Africa as well,” he said after a tour of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
“Let’s get it done,” Obama added. “This can’t get caught up in normal politics.”
Obama’s visit to the National Institutes of Health was meant to promote the completion of phase one clinical trials for a potential Ebola vaccine. But the broader message was aimed at ensuring lawmakers don’t leave town without passing the Ebola funding before the end of the year.
Ebola has faded from the limelight in the wake of a pair of Dallas nurses beating the virus. However, Obama was quick to remind the public that future, unknown threats could emerge and that the U.S. could not afford to be unprepared for such developments.
“This is important now, but it’s also important for our future,” Obama said of the $6 billion funding request.
The Ebola funding is one of the few areas where there appears to be bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill. Even Obama’s most vocal GOP critics have called for emergency spending to combat Ebola in West Africa.
The remaining question is how much lawmakers are willing to spend. Some have balked at roughly $1.5 billion in contingency funds, for example.
However, Obama insisted Tuesday that such money could be used for development of an Ebola vaccine, which he argued would save potentially billions of dollars.
“No potential Ebola vaccine has ever made it this far,” he said. “This is exciting news.”
