Congress Must Pass Full COVID-19 Funding

Dear Leaders Schumer and McConnell and Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy,

The undersigned organizations are writing to urge Congress to immediately pass full funding for the additional COVID-19 response requested by the White House.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over. Children under five are still unable to be vaccinated. Immunocompromised individuals are still unable to access the medication needed to protect themselves. Treatments, tests, and high-quality masks are still not fully accessible or available. Millions of people have become newly disabled by Long COVID, a condition researchers are still working to understand, and our fractured social safety net and over-strained health systems are unable to support them. 

Our organizations represent people with disabilities, including many who are at high risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19, who have consistently been further marginalized by our country’s response to the pandemic. We know first-hand the threat we are facing. 

Our communities are already experiencing the compounding effect inadequate resources impose on the ongoing crisis. The home and community based services older and disabled people depend on to live safely in their homes and communities, instead of in facilities the pandemic proved are dangerous, already had waitlists in the hundreds of thousands before COVID began. Now, the care workforce is in crisis, forcing millions of unpaid family caregivers – mostly women of color – to indefinitely delay returning to the workforce, further harming families struggling with the increasing impact of inflation. By relaxing universal masking and other mitigation measures before medications, treatments, tests, and high-quality masks are fully available and accessible to all those at the highest risk, our communities have been left behind in the nations’ effort to “live with COVID.” People with disabilities, those who are immunocompromised, and those who have other underlying health conditions, are still dying from COVID.

The need to pass full COVID response funding is urgent. Globally, COVID-19 cases are again rising due to a new Omicron sub-variant. As was the case following prior surges of Delta and Omicron in Europe, the United States is beginning to see signs that cases are on the rise here as well. To prevent further unnecessary illness and death, Congress must fully fund current initiatives for vaccines and boosters, testing, treatment, mitigation, and research and commit to fully fund the President’s new National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.

Without adequate funding for the COVID-19 response, the pandemic’s destructive spread will cause further intractable harm to the lives of all Americans – particularly those already at risk, including communities of color, older people, and people with disabilities, immunodeficiency and other chronic health conditions. 

The COVID-19 crisis is not over – it is growing and we are rapidly running out of resources to address it. Congress must fully fund the White House’s request to protect high-risk communities and all Americans. 

Sincerely,

The Arc of the United States

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Be a Hero

Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities

COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project

Epilepsy Foundation 

Justice in Aging

Little Lobbyists

Patient-Led Research Collaborative

Matthew Cortland, Senior Fellow, Data For Progress