On March 6, 2020 President Trump signed into law the first of 3 emergency spending laws to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: H.R. 6074 (116th): Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020. The legislation provided $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. With funding”to remain available until September 30, 2024″ [Just before the next US Presidential election!] [1]
The “sweeping spending bill” is to pump “billions of dollars into prevention efforts and research to quickly produce a vaccine for the deadly disease”, to which only eleven Americans have died by this date.
$6.2 billion was allocated to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) primarily for vaccine development and public health funding and $1.6 billion designated for the international response such as USAID. [4]
Spending allocated to agencies that fall under HHS:
- $3.4 billion to Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (PHSSEF), of which $2 billion to BARDA for research and development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics
- $1.9 billion to CDC
- $836 million to NIAID for research on therapies, vaccines, diagnostics
- $61 million to FDA for the development and review of vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices and countermeasures.
PLEASE READ all three March 2020 stimulus spending laws – HERE