Woodruff: The nation has suffered a loss of once unthinkable proportions, more than one million Americans dead from COVID-19. So many around the country are mourning the loss of friends and loved ones. That toll represents one death for every 327 Americans, that is a number equal to the population of San Jose, California, the country’s 10th largest city.
On Thursday, at the Global Pandemic Summit, President Biden marked the tragic milestone. He asked world leaders to renew their commitment to fighting the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Biden: There is still so much left to do. This pandemic isn’t over. And with thousands still dying every day, now is the time for us to act, all of us together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Woodruff: He also called on Congress to provide more COVID-19 funding, but the path ahead for that aid is uncertain.
Joining me tonight to discuss this and more, Manu Raju, chief congressional correspondent for CNN; Seung Min Kim, she’s the White House reporter for “The Washington Post”; and Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for “USA Today”.
It’s so good to see both of you -- both of you at the table, and you, Manu, remotely. We are so glad to have you here with us tonight.
And let’s start, Seung Min, by talking about that package that the White House is asking for. Remind us, what exactly -- how much are they asking for, and what is in that package?
Seung Min Kim, White House Reporter, The Washington Post: So, when they initially put forward that request to Congress, they had asked for more than $22 billion to cover the cost of additional therapeutics, vaccines, all these essentials the country needs to continue fighting this pandemic. But several months ago, they were supposed to put it in this must pass package in Congress to fund the government, but that got left out over disputes on how to pay for it.
So, now, we are looking at this orphan package. Because of protests from Republicans, that already $22 billion has been sliced by more than half. Now we are talking about $10 billion. There are a lot of other complications here, too. For example, the biggest complication with that package is Republicans insisting on a vote, on retaining Title 42, that pandemic era border policy that expels people at the border for public health reasons.
That order is set to lift May 23rd. There are some legal and judicial rulings that may change that date, but right now, Republicans are insisting on a vote. A lot of Democrats in Congress oppose the administration’s plans to lift that policy.
Woodruff: Yeah.
Kim: So, all of that is kind of -- the COVID aid is kind of getting tangled up in midterm year election politics, immigration politics.
Woodruff: Yeah, so it has gotten very messy.
Kim: Exactly, very much so.
Woodruff: So, Manu, from the Hill perspective, I mean, they have been asking for this money for some time. And here we are, and there is a problem. Why?
Manu Raju, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent: Yeah, it’s been actually months in the making, this problem, and in large part -- not just because of the disagreement over Title 42 policy and that as Seung Min rightly points out is absolutely stalling things at the moment, but also Democrats have struggled to get their own ducks in a row.
Back in March, there actually was a deal for about $16 billion worth of COVID aid. That was a deal cut between Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, along with the top appropriators in both the House and Senate on the Republican and Democratic side. They were going to roll that into a massive package to fund the government.
But Democrats in the rank-and-file in the House rebelled. They revolted over it because Republicans insisted that the $16 billion be offset with spending cuts, and there were concerns among some of the Democrats about where those offsets were coming from, where those offsets were coming from. Some of them would have come from their own states, for unused COVID money they believe that were obligated to their states, and they pushed back.
And that essentially forced Pelosi, who essentially did not have the votes to pass that massive government spending bill out of the house, she had to nix that $16 billion package altogether. And as a result, things have been stalled for some time. There was then deal cut in the Senate for a smaller package, $10 billion between the Republicans and Democrats, they got rid of international COVID aid, dealing, with the kind of to do it on the global level. They had to get rid of that in order to get a deal with Republicans to fully pay for, to offset the cost of this package. That $10 billion got wrapped in election politics of dealing with how to target the Title 42 policy at the border.
Now, Republicans are insisting on an amendment dealing with Title 42 as part of the COVID package. Chuck Schumer has resisted that, but he is facing increased pressure from top Democrats, including ones who were up for reelection, including the number two Democrat, his chief deputy Dick Durbin, who told me this week that it is inevitable that they ultimately have to cave to Republican demands.
So, it seems like, eventually, they’re going to have to give Republicans a vote to get this through. It will only being $10 billion of the $22.5 billion the White House proposed. It is unknown if it can deal with the surge of cases in the months ahead.
Woodruff: It gives you a headache to keep track of the ins and outs of this.
But, Susan, does it look like there is a solution here from your perspective?
Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today: Well, I don’t think we know. I don’t think it is perfectly clear there will be a deal. Six month before November, Republicans do not feel a great imperative to do anything that lets Democrats out-of-the-box they are in on this.
You know, one thing -- one reason I think Americans hate politics is you listen to the back-and-forth about unrelated issues, but this is going to have real-life consequences for Americans if this money is not approved. The administration says it will be harder to update vaccines to deal with new variants, that they may have to restrict who can get the new vaccines to the most vulnerable.
I mean, that’s like the way back machine, when you had to be on a certain list to get the initial vaccines that came out. So, it’s not just a fight with shadow puppets. This is something that’s going to affect Americans across the country as we go into the fall and winter, when we expect to have another surge of COVID.
Woodruff: Which brings me back to the question of, is the White House thinking about how the American people see COVID right now? I mean, we know there are a lot of cases out there, though they tend to be mild. But it’s not that COVID has gone away. It’s still there.
Kim: Right. It’s been a really big challenge for the White House for months now, if not over the year, because you see how much the public. I mean, we are tired of COVID, we all want to move on and try to resume a sense of normalcy and the White House has tried to project that as many ways as possible. You know, last year, they lifted the mask mandate, perhaps too prematurely. And they had not really resisted when a federal judge knocked down that federal transportation mask mandate a few weeks ago.
But they also know at the same time that the pandemic is still with us, infections will still be high, even with vaccines, hospitalization and death may not be as prevalent, they still have to -- they still need the tools to fight a pandemic that is ongoing. It is a tough balancing act for the White House that they have been dealing with for some time, with a weary public, but a reality where the pandemic is still with us.
Woodruff: And, Manu, again, from the Hill perspective, is it the Democratic members are feeling the need for COVID and Republicans aren’t? I mean, that’s almost too simplistic, isnt it?
Raju: Yeah. It is -- look, it is a much different situation than we were back in 2020. Remember, at that time, it was almost a blank check, even in 2021 to some extent, but mostly in 2020, a blank check that Congress was writing for dealing with the COVID response. There were no concerns about offsetting the costs and not increasing the budget deficit in the process.
That was not even a discussion. In fact, during the Trump time, the end of the Trump era, they were saying, we don’t really care about deficits and debt, we care about dealing with the pandemics.
That has changed. The politics has changed, and the concerns have changed and the party’s approaches have changed, and that has made things much more complicated on the Hill because Republicans are insisting on offsetting the costs of any new money dealing with COVID, and as a result, that has created extra complications.
And remember, that first package that they passed under Biden, roughly $2 trillion, that was passed with strictly Democratic support. That was supposed to be dealing with the pandemic, but the Republicans disagreed with that approach. It has under the Biden era been a much more partisan fight over additional money to deal with the pandemic, which has made things more complicated, but Democrats themselves have their own issues to deal with.
But the questions here, Judy, is that going to be enough to deal with this? And if the White House says we need more money in the fall, can they get that together by the midterms? Also, another complicating factor here.
Woodruff: And, Susan, I hear you saying that for the Republicans, they just aren’t hearing the imperative from their voters, from the people they answer to, to do something here, in all this.
Page: One of this -- there has been several strange things about the COVID pandemic that we’ve -- that we’ve seen, and one of them has been that it’s become a partisan split.
Woodruff: Yeah.
Page: And Republicans -- Republican voters, Republican legislators and office holders have been much -- have taken a different attitude toward the COVID pandemic than Democrats have. They have been much less willing to take vaccines. They’ve been less willing to agree with mask mandates.
And there are probably a lot of reasons why that has happened, but it persists today. And that’s when reasons become not a medical, science issue. This has become very much a partisan political issue.
Woodruff: Which makes it even harder, Seung Min, for the White House, getting back to what you were saying about their need to connect what they are asking for with what they see the American people need at this point.
Kim: Right, very much so. And they are dealing with an uphill dynamic in the Senate. I mean, 10 Republican votes in the Senate for an administration priority, even if it’s something that seemingly nonpartisan as COVID aid, is going to be a challenge. It’s definitely been a challenge.
And just that dynamic, sort of the congressional split, has been such a big hurdle for the administration and so many other issues and certainly is one here.
Web Clip
Web Clip
