President Donald Trump says the coronavirus is under control. But U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut is concerned that his administration has not asked for enough emergency funding to tackle the virus.
DeLauro chairs the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. At a committee hearing on Capitol Hill, she told Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that the two-page request for $2.5 billion for coronavirus falls far short of the Obama administration’s detailed request for emergency funding for Ebola in 2014.
“I have repeatedly asked for information about expenditures thus far. And about the balances remaining in the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund. And yet we have not received an adequate answer.”
DeLauro says her committee will do its own analysis and appropriate more money for the U.S. response to the coronavirus.