During an Axios event Wednesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) called on Congress to vote on COVID preparedness funding separately from measures on supporting Ukraine and a bill that would reimpose Title 42.
State of play: Republicans have held that they won't pass funding for COVID or Ukraine unless Congress brings back Title 42, which allows border authorities to turn away migrants attempting to enter the U.S. due to the pandemic emergency, NBC reports.
What he's saying: Carper suggested it would be a "foolish decision" to not pass the $10 billion COVID preparedness funding package that has stalled in Congress.
- "We know that we're going to have other variations of this virus," Carper said. "It'll come back, just like it has in the last two years. It'll happen again and we need to be ready — right on the money.
- Carper said the money would "help fund the research that needs to be done so we can come up with the vaccinations and the booster shots and the other kind of therapeutics to kill it."
Carper said Russia's invasion calls for the U.S. "to provide [Ukraine] all the help that they can use and need."
- "It gets a little convoluted, but I think we ought to have a chance to vote up or down," Carper said, arguing that the measures should be considered separately and not as a package.