Congressional covid funding deal appears doomed after GOP criticism
A congressional deal for billions of dollars in additional coronavirus funding appeared all but dead Thursday after Senate Republicans accused the White House of being dishonest about the nation's pandemic funding needs.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who brought the Senate to the brink of a bipartisan $10 billion coronavirus funding deal in March, said the Biden administration had provided "patently false" information about its inability to buy additional vaccines, treatments and supplies. He cited a newly announced White House plan to repurpose some existing funds to cover the country's most pressing vaccine and treatment needs.
Washington operates on a relationship of trust between the respective parties," Romney said at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Thursday, noting the White House had repeatedly claimed it had exhausted coronavirus funding and could not redirect other spending. "I hope that there's an appreciation that for the administration to say they could not purchase these things and then, after several months, divert some funds and then purchase them is unacceptable and makes our ability to work together . . . very much shaken to the core."
Biden officials said last week they had no choice but to repurpose about $10 billion from other coronavirus priorities, such as testing, to purchase more vaccine and treatments, since Congress had not been able to reach agreement.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/congressional-covid-funding-deal-appears-230731202.html
Republicans doing what they do best, nothing.
