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February 26, 2020

Schumer preparing $8.5 billion request for emergency coronavirus funding, source says

Photo | POOL Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
By Lauren Fox, Phil Mattingly and Devan Cole, CNN

Senate Democrats are preparing to request $8.5 billion to combat the coronavirus, a senior Senate Democratic aide told CNN Wednesday, setting up a spending showdown in Congress where lawmakers are grappling with how to help contain the disease.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is expected to formally request the funding Wednesday.

The five-part request includes $1.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including for the Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund and Global Health Security; $3 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund; $2 billion set aside for state and local reimbursements; $1 billion for the USAID's Emergency Reserve Fund; and $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Development program.

A House Democratic aide told CNN that they "are still assessing what amount of funding is needed" because of a lack of information from President Donald Trump's administration.

"Bipartisan, bicameral meetings to work out the details of the coronavirus supplemental (funding) will begin today. The strong desire of all four corners is to assemble a bill that robustly funds pandemic response and can earn bipartisan support," the aide said.

But Schumer's request sets up a possible fight with the administration, which earlier this week requested $2.5 billion and only $1.25 billion of it is new funding.

The request from the minority leader comes as fears of the coronavirus and concerns over the US' ability to adequately respond to it continue to rise. On Tuesday, one of the top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that health experts foresee the disease that has killed thousands spreading in the United States.

Since returning from recess, Republicans and Democrats have expressed concern the administration may not be fully equipped to handle a potential outbreak in the United States, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the White House's funding effort "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency," and Republican Sen. John Kennedy pressing the acting Homeland Security secretary over the current level of preparation to deal with its spread during a tense hearing on Tuesday.

Schumer had dismissed the White House's funding request as "too little, too late," calling Trump's move to repurpose funding previously appropriated for the prevention and treatment of Ebola "indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be."

"We've seen no sign that President Trump has any plan or urgency to deal with the spread of the coronavirus -- we need real leadership and we need it fast," Schumer added.

Trump tweeted shortly after returning home from India on Wednesday that he had a meeting on the virus planned later in the day and that his staff were all doing a "great job." He announced Wednesday morning that he will hold a news conference at the White House about coronavirus at 6 p.m. ET.

The President said on Twitter on Monday that the disease is "very much under control in the USA" and that the stock market was "starting to look very good to me," linking the two together. Global markets, however, have been rocked by fears of the coronavirus in recent days, with investors showing concern that the outbreak could turn into a pandemic that will seriously hurt corporate earnings and economic growth.

Responding to Trump's claim that the disease is under control in the US, Pelosi told CNN on Wednesday, "I don't think the President knows what he's talking about -- once again."

The US now has 35 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. More than a dozen Americans who tested positive for the disease returned to the US this week after spending weeks in isolation on the luxury cruise ship Diamond Princess docked in Japan.

During the Senate hearing on Tuesday, Kennedy, who represents Louisiana, sparred with acting Secretary Chad Wolf over the issue in an exchange that highlighted the growing bipartisan concern about it. At one point, the lawmaker told the official that "the American people deserve some straight answers on the coronavirus and I'm not getting them from you."

"I disagree," Wolf responded, and he also directed some of Kennedy's questions to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the hearing, Wolf spoke with reporters and defended his department's readiness to defend against the disease, saying, it's "implementing a number of operational measures at airports, seaports and land ports of entry. And we'll continue to do that."

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