House Drops Pandemic Relief From Final Omnibus Bill

The House passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill on Wednesday which contained more than $13 billion in aid to Ukraine.

But despite Democrats pleading that there was a desperate need for more pandemic relief, the $14 billion in COVID funds were stripped from the bill at the last minute. Republicans refuse to vote for any more pandemic relief funds until a full accounting of all previous COVID spending bills can be given. Meanwhile, Democrats don’t like the idea that some of the funds in the omnibus bill will be from offsets from the American Rescue Plan, the COVID relief measure passed last year.

At least 30 states will end up losing funds from the American Rescue Plan that was never allocated and never spent. And with almost every state enjoying huge budget surpluses, one wonders why they need the extra cash in the first place.

CNN:

In a statement, Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush railed against the plan.

“I vehemently oppose efforts to snatch back the lifesaving resources we need to fully and equitably recover from this pandemic,” she said.

Democratic lawmakers from states like Washington, Michigan, Ohio and others were upset because they believed the money from the American Rescue Plan that was being allocated as an offset was assistance promised to their states that they have yet to receive, a Democratic aide told CNN.

The state of Michigan has $20 billion extra to spend thanks to previous federal gifts to the state during the coronavirus pandemic. Maybe you should use some of those “lifesaving resources” before coming hat in hand to Congress to try and extort more from those of us who live in other states.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing a rebellion because she’s suggesting something Republicans have been demanding for months.

In fact, Republicans have been demanding for a while that the government give a full accounting of where the pandemic relief money went, how much has been spent, how much remains, and why the hell can’t they use some of what hasn’t been spent to offset funds being appropriated today?

But GOP Senators are talking to liberal Democrats who consider it a sacrilege — or whatever atheists see as being a very bad thing — for the people to take back the money they’ve already had printed up and set aside for delivery.

Republicans sent a letter to the White House posing six questions to Biden they want to be answered before voting for any more COVID relief funds.

“Since passage of the American Rescue Plan in February, questions are mounting about where exactly the additional money has gone,” the GOP letter said.

“Before we would consider supporting an additional $30 billion for COVID-19 relief, Congress must receive a full accounting of how the government has already spent the first $6 trillion,” the senators wrote.

The senators outlined six questions they said needed to be answered before they would consider greenlighting additional funds. They want to know, for example, the purpose of additional funding; how much of the funding made available under the American Rescue Plan remains unspent; how much money has been spent on vaccines and testing; and if the administration make available to the public real-time data about all COVID-19 spending.

The White House says the winter omicron surge drained the coffers and they need more cash to deal with the situation. One can only hope Republicans stick to their guns and embarrass the Democrats by exposing their COVID relief scams to the voters.