White House Pushes Congress To Reverse Pandemic Prevention Cuts
HuffPost
Polling indicates restoring the funds to prepare for future pandemics would be a political winner.
The White House is pushing congressional Democrats to reverse course on a plan to shortchange President Joe Biden’s request for tens of billions of dollars in funding for the prevention of future pandemics. Biden proposed spending $30 billion on pandemic preparedness and prevention as part of his American Families Plan earlier this year, but Senate Democrats’ outline of a massive health and social spending package they will negotiate in the coming months allocates under $10 billion toward preventing and preparing for future outbreaks, even as the coronavirus pandemic surges yet again. The White House began pressuring members of Congress earlier this week to bump that $10 billion up to at least $15 billion in what it is billing as a down payment for a larger $65 billion plan to prepare the nation’s public health infrastructure, which has been underfunded for decades.More Related News