The White House requested $47 billion in emergency funding Sept. 2 to support response efforts for the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, monkeypox and natural disasters.
The Biden administration is asking Congress to consider the requests as part of a short-term spending bill to fund the U.S. government after the current spending package expires Sept. 30.
Two healthcare takeaways:
1. COVID-19 funding. The White House is requesting $22.4 billion to support ongoing pandemic response activities, including stockpiling tests and accelerating research on next-generation vaccines. The request comes after Congress failed to reach a deal on additional COVID-19 funding this summer, spurring the government to shift funding away from testing and end its program that shipped free rapid tests to Americans. If more funding is not secured, the U.S. government will be forced to forgo buying and distributing free COVID-19 vaccines by January, officials said.
2. Monkeypox funding. The Biden Aadministration is also seeking $4.5 billion to fund monkeypox response efforts. About $3.9 billion would cover monkeypox vaccines, tests and treatments in the U.S., while $600 million would be used to support global monkeypox efforts. More than 19,000 monkeypox cases had been confirmed in the U.S. as of Sept. 1, according to the CDC.