House Democrats postponed consideration of a stand-alone emergency funding package for the ongoing pandemic response until at least next week, after opposition from rank-and-file lawmakers to one of the offsets forced party leaders to strip the COVID-19 money from a broader $1.5 trillion fiscal 2022 omnibus bill.
The new bill is mostly identical to the earlier $15.6 billion pandemic aid piece of the omnibus, with one major exception: $7 billion of it is no longer offset by rescinding unspent state aid appropriated last year. House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said her chamber would vote on the new version of virus aid separately from the omnibus, which will both get votes Wednesday night.
The decision to remove the pandemic aid from the omnibus, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a letter to her caucus Wednesday afternoon, came after some Democrats threatened to vote against a procedural rule needed to advance the omnibus.
