White House slams Senate GOP for blocking $10 billion COVID bill

The White House is blasting Senate Republicans in a Tuesday evening statement after GOP lawmakers blocked an effort to move forward on a $10 billion Covid aid package.

A 47-52 vote saw every Republican senator decide against beginning debate on the spending bill, after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to withhold support absent a provision keeping a Trump-era border policy known as Title 42 in tact was included.  

The Biden administration announced it would lift the order, which allows any border agent to turn away asylum-seekers on contact in the name of keeping virus cases down, on May 23.

Democrats needed 10 Republicans on board for the measure to move forward. It now could be delayed until after the Senate’s two-week break beginning April 11. 

‘It is disappointing that Senate Republicans voted down consideration of a much-needed bill to purchase vaccines, boosters, and life-saving treatments for the American people,’ White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement hours after the vote.

‘As we have repeatedly said, there are consequences for Congress failing to fund our COVID Response. The program that reimbursed doctors, pharmacists and other providers for vaccinating the uninsured had to end today due to a lack of funds.’

Psaki also reiterated the Biden administration’s warnings that treatments like monoclonal antibodies, favored by many in red states like Florida and Texas as an alternative to vaccination, would run out in May without more funding. 

Covid test manufacturing capacity would also dwindle by late June, she said.

‘Today’s Senate vote is a step backward for our ability to respond to this virus. We will continue to work with the House and Senate to move this vital legislation forward,’ the Biden official concluded.

Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., voted with Republicans against moving the bill forward. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his ‘yes’ vote in a last-minute procedural move to enable him to bring the package back to the floor. 

Their fellow Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., did not vote, according to the Senate Press Gallery. 

Schumer said after the vote, ‘This is a potentially devastating vote for every single American who was worried about the possibility of a new variant rearing its nasty head within a few months.’

It comes as scientists warn a new sub-variant of the Omicron Covid strain, known as BA.2, could lead to a spike in virus cases in the US after recent waves in Europe and Asia.

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One Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, joined Republicans in blocking the measure. Schumer switched his vote to ‘no’ in a last-minute procedural move

GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier on Tuesday that there would need to be an amendment keeping Title 42 in place in order for Democrats to pass more Covid aid with the 10 Republican votes they needed to make it happen.

‘There’ll have to be an amendment on Title 42 in order to move the bill,’ McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters on Tuesday. ‘We’ll need to enter into some kind of agreement to process these amendments in order to go forward with the bill.’ 

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Schumer said that the Covid relief bill should ‘not be held hostage’ to other proposals. 

Lawmakers reached a bipartisan deal to offer $10 billion in additional Covid-19 funding on Monday. The bill funded vaccines, therapeutics and other Covid safety measures domestically, but dropped funding for fighting the pandemic abroad. 

The Biden administration announced last week that the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) emergency health order, Title 42, which is used to expel a majority of immigrants on the southern border, will expire by May 23. Department of Homeland Security officials say the expiration is likely to cause a fresh surge in border crossings. 

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‘There’ll have to be an amendment on Title 42 in order to move the bill,’ McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters on Tuesday. ‘We’ll need to enter into some kind of agreement to process these amendments in order to go forward with the bill’

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he ‘absolutely’ wanted a Title 42 amendment to the bill. ‘It’s utterly insane that the administration claims to be concerned about COVID,’ he said. ‘At the same time, they’ve decided just to throw open the doors to illegal aliens who are COVID-positive.’ 

The order was first implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 and has been used to expel most migrants at the border. In February, 55 percent of people who arrived at the border were turned away due to the order. 

More than 1.6 million migrants – mostly single adults and family units – have been expelled under Title 42 by both Trump and Biden.  

In order to pass the $10 billion coronavirus aid deal before April 9, when both chambers go on a two-week break, all 100 senators need to cooperate, potentially giving Republicans leverage to force an amendment vote. 

The $10 billion plan is less than half of what the White House originally requested, but some Republicans were prepared to offer  nothing as they claimed previous Covid funding had been squandered or still had yet to be spent. 

While past Covid-19 relief bills, such as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, have been saddled with funding for struggling families and businesses, the new deal would be narrowly tailored to public health efforts to fight the virus.  

Senate Republicans including Mitt Romney, Utah, Richard Burr, N.C. and Roy Blunt, Mo., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., were working with Democrats after the pandemic funding was pulled from the 2022 budget bill. Lead negotiators on the Democratic side were Sens. Chris Coons, Del., Chuck Schumer, N.Y., and Patty Murray, Wash. The new deal could clear the upper chamber as soon as this week. 

A number of moderate Democratic senators have opposed the rescission of Title 42, but none have weighed in on the amendment suggestion. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, both Arizona Democrats, put out a statement warning against rolling back the order without a plan to deal with an onset of migrants, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., said he is discussing with Republicans what to do about the matter.

White House press secretary pushed back on the idea of the amendment. Decisions on Title 42 should remain independent of the urgently needed funding for Covid aid. This is a decision made by CDC, it’s a public health decision. It’s not one, of course, that should be wrapped up in politics.’ 

A number of House Democrats had threatened to vote against the new aid deal without international funding, arguing it was necessary to keep new variants from developing and spreading to the U.S. But during a Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday leadership urged them not to vote ‘no’ on the package. Some have suggested a separate bill on international Covid aid could come up later in the year.

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Migrants that were mostly sent back to Mexico pass their time at an encampment yards away from the border while many hope to be allowed into the U.S. when Title 42 is lifted

Biden asked Congress for another $22.5 billion to fight the pandemic, and lawmakers had originally included $15.6 billion in aid as part of the fiscal year 2022 budget bill, meaning it could have passed with a simple majority vote. But the Covid aid was yanked at the last second after progressives protested the pay-fors of the funding – repurposing about $7 billion in leftover state and local Covid relief.

Moderate Republicans who could be swayed to vote for further aid insisted it was  paid for, and demanded a full accounting of where other aid money has gone so far. 

The new deal set to be announced Monday is paid for by repurposing aid from previous Covid-19 bills, but does not dig into state assistance. 

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