The federal government is running out of resources to procure COVID vaccines, tests, and treatments right as the nation faces yet another wave of infections. A $10 billion emergency appropriation to fund these critical needs has been stalled in Congress since March amid fights about how to pay for it and what amendments on other policy issues might be added to the bill. If federal policymakers can’t resolve these disputes soon, state governments should use the generous financial support Congress has already given them to step in and fill the void.
When the most-recent COVID relief bill was first introduced, Republicans insisted on paying for it by rescinding funds the federal government had previously promised to state and local governments in the American Rescue Plan Act that President Biden signed into law last year. They argued that state governments experiencing unprecedented budget surpluses didn’t need the money and excessive government spending was worsening inflation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prepared to hold a vote on a bill that met these demands, but a last-minute rebellion within her caucus scuttled the vote and it has been in limbo since while members of both parties continue to demand additional changes.
Continued stalling of this bill threatens to return America to the early days of the pandemic, when a failure of leadership by the Trump administration left individual states to fend for themselves and compete against one another in procuring equipment for health-care providers. States may have to pay higher prices or wait longer to purchase resources that the federal government could get more quickly as the world’s largest bulk buyer. And leaving COVID response to the states would almost certainly result huge inequities, as states with Democratic governors (and what remains of the GOP’s moderate wing in the Northeast) do more to protect their constituents from the virus than Trump acolytes like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
