President Biden's budget proposal calls for $81.7 billion to spend over five years preparing for future pandemics, which would be a significant investment in boosting the country's readiness for future threats.
"While combatting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the United States must catalyze advances in science, technology, and core capabilities to prepare the Nation for the next biological threat and strengthen U.S. and global health security," the budget states.
However, the president's budget is only a proposal, and any new funding for pandemic preparedness would require congressional approval.
About $15 billion in funding for vaccines, tests, and treatments was stripped out of the government funding bill earlier this month.
The president's budget calls for $40 billion to develop and manufacture vaccines, treatments, and tests aimed at future threats. Another $28 billion would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance, lab capacity, and the public health workforce.
The National Institutes of Health would get $12.1 billion for research on vaccines and other measures, while the FDA would get $1.6 billion for its labs and information technology.
Previously, the Biden administration put forward a plan in the fall for $65.3 billion for pandemic preparedness over seven to 10 years, but Congress has not acted on that proposal. The budget also calls for $5 billion for the newly-established Advanced Research Projects for Health (ARPA-H) agency focused on medical research in areas like cancer.
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