Congress Agrees To $8B Coronavirus Spending Bill

The Washington Post reports:

Bipartisan congressional negotiators reached agreement Wednesday on a roughly $8 billion emergency spending bill to combat the coronavirus, racing to send it to President Trump’s desk by the end of the week. The deal must still be voted on by the House later Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday, and bipartisan support is expected. The deal is more than triple the size of the White House’s budget request from last week and includes funding for battling the virus’s spread in the United States and other countries.

The package would include more than $3 billion for the research and development of vaccines and other treatments. Other parts of the deal include $2.2 billion in new public health funding, close to $1 billion for medical supplies, health-care preparedness and community health centers, among other things. It would also would allow $7 billion in low-interest Small Business Administration loans for companies affected by the outbreak.