Congressional covid funding deal appears ‘dead’ after GOP criticism

“Washington operates on a relationship of trust between the respective parties,” Romney said at a Senate health committee hearing Thursday, noting the White House had repeatedly claimed it had exhausted covid funding and could not redirect other spending. “I hope that there’s an appreciation that for the administration to say they could not purchase these things, and then after several months, divert some funds and then purchase them is unacceptable, and makes our ability to work together … very much shaken to the core.”

Biden officials said last week they had no choice but to repurpose about $10 billion from other covid priorities, such as testing, to purchase more coronavirus vaccines and treatments, since Congress had not been able to reach agreement.

In interviews Thursday, three administration officials insisted that the White House had been transparent about their needs and spending, and that Republicans had continually found new reasons to object to the efforts to secure additional covid funds.

“We’ve tried to meet Republicans on their requests, and they keep moving the goal posts,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the issue.

“Going back to January, we’ve been working with members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, on the funding needs for the covid response,” White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement, touting “countless” briefings and conference calls, and hundreds of pages of funding documents shared with lawmakers. “We’ve also been crystal clear about the consequences of a lack of funding … including the very real possibility that we would have to reevaluate the planned uses of existing funds.”

Biden administration officials originally considered more than $80 billion in additional covid funding late last year and laid out a $30 billion request in February. That target was cut to about $22 billion in March, as Romney and other Republicans pressed the White House to account for trillions of dollars in prior coronavirus spending.

In a March 23 briefing, then-White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients warned of “severe” and “immediate” consequences if Congress failed to act, citing the…