Biden Seeks $82 Billion for Pandemic Preparedness

March 29, 2022

President Joe Biden’s 2023 federal budget proposal, released Monday, calls for nearly $82 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services over five years to prepare for future pandemics.

The proposal includes funds for a new biomedical research agency, along with disease forecasting tools, long-COVID research, vaccination programs, and mental health services for the health care work force.

The budget would also strengthen and expand clinical trial infrastructure and manufacturing capacity, The New York Times reported.

“That is a drop in the bucket compared to what it’s cost so far to deal with COVID,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, according to the Times.

Becerra noted that the proposed budget is separate from the $22.5 billion in additional emergency funding the White house has requested from Congress to replenish COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines.  

“What we need to continue to finish the job on COVID, we need immediately,” he said. “What we’re asking for in this budget for long term preparedness is very separate.”

Much of the proposed budget would build on an annual spending bill passed by early March and represents an increase of 27 percent in funding for HHS over 2021, the Times said.

Lawrence A. Tabak, acting director of the National Institutes of Health said the funding for pandemic preparedness “is critical to addressing the new opportunities … and will continue to lay the groundwork for a robust biomedical research enterprise for years to come as the nation adapts to meet the demands and possibilities in our changing world.”