The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
⏩ Connecticut Democrats say Trump responding too slowly to coronavirus.
WASHINGTON — As state and federal agencies prepare for the eventual spread of coronavirus in the United States, Democratic members of Congress accused the administration of President Donald Trump of acting too slowly and requesting inadequate funding to prepare for the outbreak.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, grilled U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a hearing on his department’s budget Wednesday morning. While applauding his decision to declare a public health emergency and put travel restrictions in place, she decried the administration’s decision to shift funding from health programs to fight the pandemic.
On Monday, the U.S. health department requested $1.25 billion in emergency coronavirus funding from Congress and revealed plans to shift money from other health programs to coronavirus response — a total of $2.5 billion in spending. The money is intended to pay for testing and screening of the virus, masks, the development of a vaccine and other public health responses.
DeLauro will now help lead House Democrats in drafting their own plan to fund the coronavirus response with Republicans. Both parties have said they are willing to allocate much more than Azar requested.
“We will work quickly,” said DeLauro, while declining to speculate on how much she would push for. “I want to make to sure we have enough money to do this.”
Trump administration health officials briefed federal lawmakers on the global health epidemic Tuesday and Wednesday, and in multiple hearings, faced tough questioning about their plans to address it. On Tuesday, the White House also briefed state health officials, including Connecticut Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell, about response to the virus, a state health department spokesman said.
Trump has scheduled a news conference on the federal plan for tackling coronavirus Wednesday evening. He suggested on Twitter Wednesday morning that the media is doing “everything possible to make the caronavirus [sic] look as bad as possible including panicking markets.”
Globally, the total number of coronavirus cases has climbed above 80,000 and nearly 3,000 people have died. The flu-like virus has now infected individuals in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America. The World Health Organization says more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed outside China than inside that nation, where the virus first exploded.
Azar said Wednesday 70 individuals have tested positive with coronavirus, some of whom returned to the U.S. from travel in Asia. Azar described the current health risk to Americans as “very low.”
“From a public health perspective, we are technically in a state of containment,” Azar said. “That could change rapidly . ... We fully expect we will seek more cases in the United States.”
No one has tested positive for coronavirus in Connecticut to date.
But residents and health officials are worried and the administration is not alleviating their fears, said Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5. She slammed the administration for having a “laissez-faire attitude” toward the virus and she’s doublechecking the information they’re sharing because “there’s been an erosion of trust.”
“I’m actually already getting letters from people in Connecticut from people who are concerned about replenishing supplies, such as gloves and face masks and what does this mean and what is the plan,” said Hayes. “We shouldn’t wait for an epidemic to hit. We should have a plan in place and just like everything else, this administration it seems like they lack a level of preparedness.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed a Senate proposal on Wednesday for $8.5 billion for fighting the virus, including $2 billion to reimburse state and local spending on the virus.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who leads the Senate budget subcommittee for health, said Tuesday that lawmakers have time to consider what is the “right number” of money to put toward the response because the administration can immediately tap about $250 million in infectious disease money already authorized.
But speaking to DeLauro’s House budget subcommittee Wednesday, Azar said his administration has already spent or obligated about $105 million of that money, prompting concerns among some lawmakers that it will not be enough.
In the hearing, both Republicans and Democrats blasted Azar for giving lawmakers a two-page document requesting emergency funding with little detail about how it would be spent. President Barack Obama’s administration presented a 20-page request when asking for funds to fight the Ebola epidemic.
“I was in the hearings where this crowd made the Obama administration provide chapter and verse, day in and day out about where the money was going and it was never enough information on where it was going,” DeLauro said. “We have a two page document. Tell us. We can deal with it.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the lead Republican on the subcommittee, also asked for more detail, but said he was confident that Azar will request more funding if he needs it. Nevertheless, he urged Azar not to be stingy now.
“I don’t think we should sacrifice short term here,” he said. “I just don’t think we should be pennywise and pound foolish on that.”
Both DeLauro and Cole warned the administration not to divert over $500 million from funds earmarked for Ebola response to pay for the coronavirus, as Azar planned to do.
Azar faced questioning on coronavirus by two House committees Wednesday and the Senate on Tuesday. In the Senate hearing, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., criticized Azar for not seeking funding for the pandemic response weeks ago.
“We cannot continue to close our eyes to these developing pandemics,” he said. “We are going to have to be partnering with many other countries. And under this administration, unfortunately, we’re going the wrong way. We are operating in less countries abroad, not more countries.”
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to prepare for the likelihood that “this might be bad.”
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore, but a question of when this will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC said Tuesday that it was working with public health labs in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle to conduct community-based tests of people with flu symptoms for the coronavirus.