RE: May do same as ncyt shares5 Mar 2020 09:27
U.S. House passes $8.3 billion bill to battle coronavirus; Senate vote due Thursday
David Morgan, Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved on Wednesday an $8.3 billion bill to combat the spread of the new coronavirus and develop vaccines for the highly contagious disease, sending it to the Senate for final passage.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and National Institutes of Health Doctor Kizzmekia Corbett, research fellow at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, as he listens to Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci following a briefing at the Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Reflecting the urgency among lawmakers to address the growing coronavirus crisis, the House voted 415-2 on the bill just hours after negotiators unveiled its contents.
A Senate vote was scheduled for Thursday.
It includes money to expand testing for the virus, which has infected at least 129 people in the United States. Two more deaths were reported on Wednesday, taking the U.S. toll to 11.
With the White House backing the effort, congressional leaders worked to win fast passage so that President Donald Trump could potentially sign it into law this week.
“We must quickly enact this legislation. Lives are at stake,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The measure would provide far more money than the $2.5 billion initially sought by the Trump administration.
Shortly before the vote, the top four Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress received a classified briefing about contingency plans for Congress if there was a coronavirus outbreak in Washington.
An estimated 3 million people come through the Capitol Visitor Center each year.
Following the meeting, the lawmakers brushed off reporters’ questions on whether plans were needed for Congress to meet somewhere else or whether public access to the Capitol might eventually be curtailed.