The White House wants Congress to include another $22.5 billion to fuel its COVID-19 response efforts, with the funding primarily going toward antiviral treatments and vaccine acquisition.
The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (PDF) asking for the additional funding to be added to an omnibus spending package being hammered out right now by lawmakers ahead of a March 11 deadline to fund the federal government. But it remains unclear whether additional funding will get support from Republicans in Congress.
A large portion of the proposed funding ($12.2 billion) would go toward procuring additional medicines and vaccines. This includes procuring oral antivirals and monoclonal antibodies to help treat those affected with COVID-19.
The money will also be used to buy additional supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters that can protect against one or more variants of the virus.
“Because multivalent vaccines would need to be reserved several months prior to their distribution, it is critical to have sufficient resources on hand to quickly secure supply as the situation and the science evolve,” the letter to Pelosi said.
It would also buy vaccines for boosters for children ages 5 to 15 that were able to get the vaccine starting last year.
An extra $2 billion would go toward testing and related supplies such as purchasing at-home tests and support for commercial and public health lab capacity.
The White House wants to ensure that providers are still reimbursed for testing, vaccination and treatment of COVID-19 for the uninsured and asks for $1.5 billion to keep the reimbursements flowing.
Another $1.5 billion would be allocated toward initial research into protecting against future variants, including a next-generation vaccine.
Absent from the request is any additional direct relief to providers, which have called for more help from Congress as they are still fighting the virus.
Several provider groups have shifted their efforts to get Congress to delay any sequester cuts from going back into effect.
At the onset of the pandemic, Congress passed a moratorium on a 2% cut to all Medicare payments installed as part of sequestration.
The cuts were delayed several times over the past two years. However, a spending package passed late last year keeps the moratorium only through April, when the cuts go to 1% until June, at which point the full 2% cut goes back into effect.
Providers have targeted the omnibus as a chance to install a moratorium on the full 2% cut.
It remains unclear, however, whether any amount of additional funding or relief will make it into the final omnibus, which requires bipartisan support from Congress.
More than 30 Republican senators wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this week asking for additional information on the funding that has already been allocated.
“While we have supported historic, bipartisan measures in the United States Senate to provide unprecedented investments in vaccines, therapeutics and testing it is not yet clear why additional funding is needed,” according to the letter led by Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
The senators said they need a “full accounting” of how the government already spent the existing funding before supporting more relief.