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John,
The federal government is on the verge of shutting down.
Because the federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 every year, Congress has the next two weeks to pass a spending bill, or risk a government shutdown. What’s preventing Congress from passing a spending bill? COVID and Monkeypox.
President Biden has requested more than $47 billion in emergency funding to help Ukraine and tackle COVID-19, monkeypox, and natural disasters. Of that $47 billion, $27 billion would go to fighting the coronavirus pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak.
Money is running out for COVID-19 programs. Already the federal government has stopped providing free COVID tests through the mail due to lack of funding, and there’s worry about whether coronavirus vaccines will be able to remain free through the beginning of 2023.
Write a letter to your member of Congress and tell them to include COVID and monkeypox emergency funding in the must-pass spending bill.
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t over. According to the World Health Organization, there have been 12,181 new cases of COVID in the U.S. over the past 24 hours and more than 10.5 million children have lost one or both parents during the pandemic.
On top of a pandemic, we now have a monkeypox outbreak that has spread to all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. The proposed funding for monkeypox will allow the government to purchase more vaccines for distribution, support more testing, and conduct research on newer vaccines and rapid testing.
We are in a public health crisis. Congress must include emergency funding for more vaccines and testing for COVID and monkeypox in their spending bill. Click here to send a letter telling your members of Congress how important this is to you.
This is critically needed funding at a time when Americans are suffering the most under rising inflation, stagnant wages, and skyrocketing housing costs.
We need Congress to come together and act now to protect the health of the American public.
With you in this fight,
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
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