Coronavirus: White House asking for more funds despite seeking deep health agency cuts, reports say
After proposing deep cuts to federal agencies tasked with fighting serious diseases, the Trump administration is preparing to ask Congress for approval to access monies to battle the Coronavirus.
In its fiscal year 2020 budget request released earlier this month, the White House proposed a 12 percent funding cut for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a 10 percent reduction for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though presidents' spending blueprints generally are considered dead on arrival because lawmakers control federal dollars, they are a clear statement about a president's priorities.
To that end, the Trump White House has been panned for its overall set of proposed health agency cuts -- especially as the Coronavirus has spread, even roiling stock markets on Monday.
Administration officials as early as this week are expected to ask Congress for permission to move $130 million from other HHS accounts to fight the virus. In addition, the administration is cobbling together a request for emergency dollars to help with, among other things, a possible vaccine.
A group of House Democrats last week pressed the administration to send them a request for an emergency package, a rare moment of bipartisan budgeteering during Washington's decade-old partisan era.
The coming emergency request was first reported by The Associated Press. White House spokespersons had not responded to a request for comment.
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