White House Relents In Face Of Lawmakers’ Pleading, Requests $1.25B In New Funding To Fight Coronavirus

The New York Times: White House Asks Congress For Billions To Fight Coronavirus
The Trump administration, after weeks of pleading from lawmakers, asked Congress on Monday to allocate $1.25 billion in new emergency funds to bolster its coronavirus response. The request from the White House, which also called for $1.25 billion in money diverted from other federal programs, is a significant escalation in the administration’s response to the outbreak of the virus and a sign of how long the fight to stop it may be. The White House budget office also said it intended to move $535 million allocated for the prevention and treatment of the Ebola virus during the current fiscal year. (Weiland, Cochrane and Haberman, 2/24)

The Washington Post: White House Asks Congress For $1.8 Billion To Bolster Coronavirus Response
The request includes $1.25 billion in new funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the ability to transfer an additional $535 million set aside to fight Ebola and use it for the coronavirus response instead. “To this point, no agency has been inhibited in response efforts due to resources or authorities. However, much is still unknown about this virus and the disease it causes,” acting White House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought wrote to congressional leaders. “The administration believes additional federal resources are necessary to take steps to prepare for a potential worsening of the situation in the United States.” (Werner, Stein and Sun, 2/24)

The Associated Press: Trump Defends $2.5B Coronavirus Request; Dems Say It's Low
The White House budget office said the funding would be used for vaccine development, treatment and protective equipment, but the amount of the request was quickly slammed by Democrats as insufficient. The budget request came as coronavirus fears were credited with Monday’s 1,000-plus-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (LeMire, 2/25)

NBC News: White House Seeks $2.5B For Coronavirus, But Pelosi Says That's Not Enough
In India on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in "very good shape" on handling coronavirus, while noting Monday’s drop in the financial markets as the virus continues to spread. “I think it’s going to be under control,” Trump told business leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Helsel and Alexander, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Seeks $2.5 Billion To Fight Coronavirus
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) criticized the request in a statement, indicating a possible political battle over the funding package. “The President’s request for coronavirus response funding is long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency,” she said. Mr. Trump, who is traveling in India, wrote in a series of tweets on Monday that the disease was under control. (Duehren, 2/24)

ABC News: White House Requesting $1.25B As Part Of $2.5B Plan To Fight Coronavirus 
As of Monday, 53 people in the United States had tested positive for the newly discovered virus, known officially as COVID-19, which emerged in China back in December. Of those cases, 39 are among people who were repatriated to the United States on charter flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, or from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which remains quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama. (Nathanson, McLaughlin and Winsor, 2/25)

Roll Call: White House Seeks $1.25 Billion More For Coronavirus Response 
According to a letter accompanying the request from acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the U.S. government has "taken unprecedented steps" to shield Americans from the disease. "However, much is still unknown about this virus and the disease it causes. The Administration believes additional Federal resources are necessary to take steps to prepare for a potential worsening of the situation in the United States," Vought wrote to congressional leaders. (Krawzak and Siddons, 2/24)

The Hill: White House Asking Congress For $2.5 Billion To Fight Coronavirus 
However, the request met quick resistance from Democrats. Just $1.25 billion of the request is for new funding, with the rest requested to be taken from existing health programs, including $535 million from fighting Ebola. "The Trump administration’s request for emergency funding is woefully insufficient to protect Americans from the deadly coronavirus outbreak," said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). (Sullivan, 2/24)

Reuters: Republicans Raise U.S. Drug Supply Concerns After Coronavirus Outbreak
Republicans raised concerns this week about the security of the U.S. drug supply chain in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China, where a significant portion of the ingredients used to make prescription drugs is manufactured. The outbreak highlights "severe, longstanding, and unresolved vulnerabilities in our capacity to produce life-saving pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices for our own citizens," Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "This is unacceptable." (2/24)

CBS News: How Coronavirus In China Could Cause Drug Shortages In America 
The raging coronavirus outbreak that has shut down employers and paralyzed business in China could soon constrain the production of core ingredients for critical drugs and medical products sold thousands of miles away in the U.S. Restrictions on travel to and from China have forced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to postpone inspections of Chinese factories. This delay could interfere with China's ability to continue supplying the U.S. with the active pharmaceutical ingredients for antibiotics and other medications used to treat serious illnesses, including tuberculosis, experts said. (Cerullo, 2/24)

In other coronavirus news from the United States —

Reuters: Judge Orders Talks Over Plans To Move Virus Patients To A California City
A U.S. judge barred the government from relocating coronavirus patients to southern California for another week on Monday and ordered it to discuss the move with state officials. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton had on Friday halted the government's plans to send infected cruise ship passengers to a state-owned facility in Costa Mesa, after the Orange County city of 113,000 filed a legal action against the proposal. (Singh and Acharya, 2/25)

The Washington Post: U.S. Judge Delays Decision On Moving Coronavirus-Exposed Americans To Costa Mesa, Calif.
She said she would not make a decision in the city’s lawsuit based on people’s fears, but was also critical of state and federal officials for not doing more to allay people’s concerns. She urged them to answer residents’ questions about who would care for people who tested positive or were potentially exposed to the virus, how many quarantined individuals might be moved to Costa Mesa and what would happen if they developed symptoms and required hospitalization. (Rowe and Abutaleb, 2/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmaker Moderna Delivers First Experimental Coronavirus Vaccine For Human Testing
Drugmaker Moderna Inc. has shipped the first batch of its rapidly developed coronavirus vaccine to U.S. government researchers, who will launch the first human tests of whether the experimental shot could help suppress the epidemic originating in China. Moderna on Monday sent vaccine vials from its Norwood, Mass., manufacturing plant to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., the company said. (Loftus, 2/24)

The New York Times: How To Quarantine At Home
“You’ll be so lonely,” says Nicole Gadon, 68, who was required to stay inside her house after testing positive for tuberculosis in 2014. If you come down with (or are exposed to) certain communicable diseases, including cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fever, SARS or a pandemic influenza, the state and federal governments can force you into quarantine and isolation. Often you will be told to hole up in your house or apartment until you are no longer deemed a threat. (Wollan, 2/25)

CBS News: Amazon May Not Have Enough Goods From China For Prime Day, Report Says 
Apparently not even Amazon — the world's largest online retailer — is immune to the effects of the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease. The contagious disease, officially called COVID-19, has closed factories and slowed the production of everything from Apple iPhone parts to drug ingredients in China used by U.S. pharmaceutical makers. Now, Amazon, which sells everything from paper towels to power tools, is also concerned it could run out of stock on many of its China-made products, according to a New York Times report. (2/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What You Need To Know About Coronavirus If You Live In Georgia 
The new coronavirus virus, officially named COVID-19, emerged in late December as a cluster of pneumonia-like cases linked to a live animal and seafood market in Wuhan, located in China’s Hubei province. Since then, the numbers have been growing dramatically every day. A global public health emergency was declared last month. (Oliviero, 2/24)