A timeline of Biden punting on pandemic relief

Speaking Security Newsletter | Note n°187 | 20 December 2022

Dec 20, 2022

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Situation

The text of the FY2023 omnibus bill for FY2023—the legislation that’ll fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year—came out this morning. I’m still going through it. But what’s clear is that the supplemental funding package for COVID and other pandemic-related programs wasn’t included as a rider to the bill. Biden requested these funds in November.

This is Biden’s fourth failed attempt at securing emergency pandemic relief this year. A timeline:

^Alt text for screen readers: Biden punted on COVID relief four times in 2022. 1: Mar 2, Biden requests $22.5B in emergency pandemic funding; Mar 15, White House says COVID programs are running out of money; Mar 15, Biden signs FY22 omnibus bill after Rep. Pelosi strips pandemic funding. 2: Apr 28, Biden requests $22.5 billion in emergency pandemic funding; May 6, White House projects 100M COVID infections in the fall, winter; May 9, Biden drops funding request because it “would slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid.” 3: Sep 2, Biden requests $22.4B in pandemic funding; Sep 18, Biden says “the pandemic is over” in 60 Minutes Interview; Sep 26, Senator Schumer removes pandemic funding from short-term spending bill. 4: Nov 15, Biden requests $10B in emergency pandemic funding; Dec 20, Democrats strip pandemic funding from FY23 omnibus bill. Data: FY2023 omnibus bill; P.L. 117-203, 128, 180.

Analysis

Blame Republicans, sure, however GOP obstructionism doesn’t explain these repeated failures. Democrats could have secured this funding on any one of these occasions. But the Biden administration decided that COVID would no longer be a priority in 2022. Only because of a spike in cases and public pressure did they resurrect the popular program that ships tests through USPS. Act soon: the money for it is pretty much dried up and because of this latest failure (and the three before it), there’s no more on the way.