Lawmakers moved closer Thursday to an agreement on a scaled-back bipartisan compromise that would provide $10 billion to combat COVID-19.
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.
Once clinched, an agreement would represent a semblance of rare bipartisan cooperation in battling the pandemic that dissipated a year ago when a far larger, $1.9 trillion measure proposed by the new president cleared Congress with only Democratic votes. That bill was laden with spending to help struggling families, businesses and communities, while this one would be aimed exclusively at public health.
Romney and others said savings the two parties had agreed to for the new bill would not include the cuts in state assistance that House Democrats opposed. He said some unused funds would be culled from another pandemic program that gives state and local governments funds for grants to local businesses.
The lowered figure for assisting other countries encountered opposition in the House, where some Democrats wanted to boost the figure. Epidemiologists have cited the need to vaccinate more people around the world and reduce the virus' opportunities for spinning off new variants.Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, said officials were"very hopeful" an agreement would be reached and prodded lawmakers to include funds to help other countries cope with the disease.
Republicans have leverage in the Democratic-controlled, 50-50 Senate because 60 votes are needed to pass most major bills. Romney and Blunt both said they believed a finalized package they described would attract significantly more than the 10 GOP votes needed.
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