Congress close to deal on smaller $10 billion COVID bill
CBSN
Lawmakers moved closer Thursday to an agreement on a scaled-back bipartisan compromise providing a fresh $10 billion to combat COVID-19, a deal that could set up final congressional approval next week.
The price tag has been reduced from an earlier $15.6 billion agreement between the two parties that collapsed weeks ago after House Democrats rejected cutting unused pandemic aid to states to help pay for it. President Joe Biden had requested $22.5 billion in early March. With leaders hoping to move the package through Congress quickly, the lowered cost seemed to reflect both parties' calculations that agreeing quickly to additional savings would be too difficult.
The effort, which would finance steps like vaccines, treatments and tests, comes as Mr. Biden and other Democrats have warned the government is running out of money to counter the pandemic. At the same time, the more transmissible omicron variant BA.2 has been spreading quickly in the U.S. and abroad.
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