Senators announce $10 billion COVID-19 deal, leave out global aid

Senators announced on Monday they had reached a deal to provide $10 billion for the fight against COVID-19, but the agreement leaves out funding for the global virus response. 

The agreement could clear the path for Congress to finally pass some new funding for the virus response, which the White House has been warning for weeks is urgently needed to allow it to purchase more vaccines, treatments and tests. 

The announcement comes after days of negotiations between a group of GOP senators and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), with negotiators signaling late last week that they were close to finalizing specifics. 

“From the beginning, Senate Republicans have insisted that any new requests from the Administration for COVID funding be paid for by repurposing existing funds. …Today’s agreement does just that by repurposing $10 billion to provide needed domestic COVID health response tools,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who helped spearhead the deal. 

Schumer added that the deal will give the administration “urgently needed funding to purchase vaccines and therapeutics, maintain access to testing and accelerate the work on next generation vaccine research.” ...

The agreement will set off a scramble to try to clear the bill before lawmakers leave for a two-week recess by Friday. To get the deal through the Senate by then they will need buy in from all 100 senators, something that could be a significant lift. It would also need to pass the House, which is expected to vote on business-related coronavirusrelief this week. ...

The removal of $5 billion in funding for the global COVID-19 response is a major blow to efforts to vaccinate the world, which experts say is key to preventing dangerous new variants from forming and threatening the United States. Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers had pushed for significantly more than that amount, and are now set to end up with nothing amid the dispute over offsets. ...