Two Republicans, Reps. Andy Biggs and Ken Buck, voted Friday against an $8.3 billion coronavirus emergency funding bill. Speaking later that evening on Fox News, Buck defended his “no” vote by calling attention to all the pork contained in the bill.
“The president asked for $2.5 billion,” he said. “I would have supported that. The speaker decided to add all sorts of Christmas tree ornaments to this bill. It was unnecessary. It was too much money. And we never had a hearing to discuss it.”
Listen, via FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle“:
(Source: Fox News)
Was he right? It depends on what you consider to be pork. A review of the bill shows that it contains oodles of potentially questionable funding.
For instance, the bill includes funding for the following foreign (not domestic) projects:
- $264 million for “Diplomatic Programs”
- $435 million for “Global Health Programs”
- $300 million for “International Disaster Assistance”
- $250 million for the “Economic Support Fund”
- $100 million for “Worldwide Security Protection”
None of this foreign funding was requested by the administration. President Donald Trump had requested $2.5 billion to be distributed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the National Institutes of Health.
“The White House request includes more than $1 billion to develop a vaccine, as well as money for therapeutics and stockpiles of protective equipment like masks,” NBC News reported in late February.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately poo-pooed the request, describing it as “inadequate.”
Look:
Americans need a coordinated, fully-funded, whole-of-government response to keep them and their loved ones safe. The President’s request for coronavirus response funding is long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
For almost two years, the Trump Administration has left critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
The President’s most recent budget called for slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control, which is on the frontlines of this emergency. And now, he is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
Weeks after the #TrumpBudget called for slashing the CDC budget during this coronavirus epidemic, this undersized funding request shows an ongoing failure to understand urgent public health needs.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
Our state and local governments need serious funding to be ready to respond effectively to any outbreak in the U.S. The President should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
The House will swiftly advance a strong, strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale and seriousness of this public health crisis.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 25, 2020
Senate Appropriations Committee chair Richard Shelby, a Republican, also criticized the proposal, saying, “It seems to me at the outset that this request for the money, the supplemental, is lowballing it, possibly, and you can’t afford to do that. If you lowball something like this, you’ll pay for it later.”
Afterward, both congressional Democrats and Republicans began working together toward drafting the ostensibly bipartisan $8.3 billion coronavirus emergency funding bill that made it through the House on Friday.
Besides containing questionable foreign spending, the bill also contains a last-minute package pushed by Democrats on behalf of “several leading healthcare technology organizations,” according to Healthcare IT News.
“The American Telemedicine Association, HIMSS, the eHealth Initiative, Health Innovation Alliance and Personal Connected Health Alliance wrote recently to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and other Congressional leaders, asking them make money from the [bill] available for telehealth services and give healthcare professionals ‘as many tools as possible’ to combat spread of the novel coronavirus,” the outlet reported Thursday.
Pelosi and crew honored the request by injecting an additional half a billion dollars into the bill.
A more detailed breakdown of the spending bill can be viewed below, courtesy The Conservative Treehouse, a right-wing blog known for its investigatory work.
?The Coronavirus porkulos bill jumped up by $500,000,000 in the last few minutes before final vote.
[Bump is in the notorious small business loans/bribes/payoffs section]
Passed 96-1
Final spend $8.3 billion.
[Was $7.8 billion at beginning of day]https://t.co/U9xiEzhc1U https://t.co/QViFexSmh5
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
$61,000,000 HHS FDA Salaries
$20,000,000 Small Business Admin Salaries$2.2 Billion CDC Appropriation
*$950,000,000 CDC State Grants
*$300,000,000 Global Disease Prevention
*$300,000,000 Reserve fund holding— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
$836,000,000 NIH Appropriation
$3.1 Billion Public Health and Social Services, Emergency Fund Appropriation (testing, diagnostics, therapeutics, etc)
*$100,000,000 Obamacare (primary care)
*$300,000,000 Obamacare (emergency fund)— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
Department of State Appropriation
$264,000,000 State Dept. Diplomatic fund (outside U.S.)
$435,000,000 Global Health and Economic Assistance (outside U.S.)
*$200,000,000 Global Health, Emergency Fund (outside U.S.)
$300,000,000 International Disaster Assistance (outside U.S.)— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
Dept of State Cont…
$250,000,000 Economic Support Fund (outside U.S.)
*$7,000,000 “Operating Expenses” (outside U.S.)$100,000,000 Worldwide Security Protection (Americans outside U.S.)
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
Summary (Rough Math)
Approx. $5 billion on U.S. programs (federal and state)
Approx. $3 billion in foreign aid (non Americans)
Approx. $500 Million General Administrative expenses.— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 6, 2020
To read the spending bill for yourself, look below:
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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