EbolaCongress ready to allocate additional funds to agencies working on Ebola
Some members of Congress are preparing to offer additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies, but according to White House press secretary Josh Earnest, the Obama administration has not decided how much additional funding it will request from Congress to combat the epidemic.
Efforts to contain and eliminate Ebola in affected countries need more U.S. government funding, according to aid organizations and public health agencies involved in the matter. Some members of Congress are preparing to offer additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies, but according to White House press secretary Josh Earnest, the Obama administration has not decided how much additional funding it will request from Congress to combat the epidemic.
Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who heads the Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, has asked his staff to work with the administration to figure out what resources will be needed to fight Ebola in the United States and West Africa. “Areas of focus in these discussions on funding for the U.S. Ebola response include the need for resources to expand quarantine stations, train and equip health workers, test potential treatments and vaccines, and expand our response in West Africa,” an aide to Harkin said.
Congress in September approved $88 million to help the effort, and earlier this month the Pentagon received congressional approval to transfer $750 million in funding to help the department’s Ebola efforts, which includes the deployment of 4,000 troops to Liberia. Government Executive reports that Harkin called the $88 million funding, which helped the CDC send medical equipment and personnel to West Africa, as well as fund clinical trials for drugs and vaccines, “a critical first step,” but “we must do more.”
“We must increase resources for CDC, not just to continue their work in the three countries most affected, but also to ramp up surveillance in the eleven countries surrounding the outbreak,” Harkin said in a statement. “Here at home, we need to train doctors in what to look for, and strengthen our quarantine stations at the twenty busiest entry points to the U.S. Finally, we must fund basic research for better treatments in the future as well as clinical trials for potential vaccines and therapies that are in the pipeline now. We cannot afford to let any potential vaccine be unexplored.”
