U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) led 35 of his Republican colleagues in questioning President Joe Biden about why an additional $30 billion in federal funding would be needed to help the nation in its ongoing fight against COVID-19.
President Biden said during his March 1 State of the Union address that he plans to ask Congress for additional pandemic relief funding. Before considering such a request, Sen. Romney and his colleagues sent a March 2 letter to the president requesting an accounting of how the federal government has already allocated trillions in taxpayer funds to combat the pandemic.
“While we have supported historic, bipartisan measures in the United States Senate to provide unprecedented investments in vaccines, therapeutics and testing, it is not yet clear why additional funding is needed,” wrote Sen. Romney and the lawmakers, who included U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Hoeven (R-ND), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Tim Scott (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN).
“All told, the nearly $6 trillion in spending on COVID-19 is the single greatest expenditure of public funds on one effort in the history of the nation,” they wrote. “However, since passage of the American Rescue Plan in February, questions are mounting about where exactly the additional money has gone.”
In an effort to better understand a forthcoming request from Biden for supplemental appropriations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawmakers asked that the administration answer several questions, including when it plans to request the additional $30 billion in COVID-19 relief funding, as well as what would be the purpose of the request.
Additionally, they want to know, as of March 3, how much of the funding made available under the American Rescue Plan remains unspent, unobligated or undisbursed; and how much money the government has spent to date on vaccines and testing.
The senators also asked if the Biden administration has plans to make publicly available all real-time data about COVID-19 spending, according to their letter.
“We strongly believe Americans should continue to take precautionary measures to protect against the pandemic, and it must be an urgent priority that the trillions of taxpayer dollars already appropriated are being spent effectively,” wrote Sen. Romney and his colleagues.