But it includes no money for the global response, which Biden officials have said is critical to protect Americans from the emergence of new, potentially dangerous variants in other parts of the world that would probably make their way to the United States. Earlier variants such as delta and omicron first took hold in relatively unvaccinated populations abroad before leading to surges of cases and deaths in the United States.
Vaccinating the world is “critical to our ability to protect against new variants,” President Biden said in a speech last week. “There’s no wall that you can build high enough to keep out a virus.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki urged Congress to “move promptly” to finalize the $10 billion deal and vowed that officials would continue to fight for global funding. But advocates panned the decision to punt on international aid for now.
“The U.S. has turned its back on the world,” said Zain Rizvi, research director for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. “Penny-pinching in a pandemic will have devastating consequences for vaccinating the world, for reducing the risk of variants, for all of us. … Abandoning the global covid response will put American lives at risk.”
Senate negotiators, including Romney, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), sought a compromise with Democrats after lawmakers could not agree on a $15 billion package that would have included about $10 billion in domestic funding and $5 billion for the international response. The deal announced Monday repurposed funding from previous stimulus packages, with Republicans touting a Congressional Budget Office analysis that found the legislation “will not cost the American people a single additional dollar,” Romney said in a statement.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) had pushed the negotiators to fund the global response, and an earlier “agreement in principle” touted by Romney last Thursday would have included about $1 billion in global aid. But lawmakers were unable to agree on how to pay for that aid, said the people familiar with the deal.
Democrats said they will seek to fund the international response through a separate legislative package later this year, and Romney said in a statement that he was “willing to explore a fiscally-responsible solution to support global efforts in the weeks ahead.”
“Many Democrats and Republicans are committed to pursuing a second supplemental later this spring,” Schumer said in a statement. “It is my intention for the Senate to consider a bipartisan International appropriations package that could include additional aid for Ukraine as well as funding to address COVID-19 and food insecurity globally.”
Global health experts said delays in securing funding would hamper ongoing efforts to deliver vaccines and other aid. Some countries have already turned away vaccine donations because they are unable to quickly administer the shots. Advocates estimate that more than 2 billion people around the world remain unvaccinated, many in developing countries that need additional trained workers, transportation and refrigerated storage to safely deliver vaccines.
“What we’re fearing at this point is that some of these Pfizer doses will sit on shelves, potentially to expire, before we’re able to deliver them to needy people across the world,” said Tom Hart, president of the ONE Campaign, a global advocacy organization.
Some House members warned last week that they would not support a package that failed to include funding for the global response.
“I don’t understand why we as a country would make this mistake. My constituents do not want another variant to shut down their lives,” Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) said in an interview Thursday. “My constituents are…
Read More: Lawmakers agree on $10 billion in covid funds, but drop global aid