Congress Unlikely To Approve Obama’s Request For Additional Flu Money, Majority Leader Says

U.S House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday expressed skepticism that Congress would approve President Obama’s recent request for an additional $2 billion to help fight the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, Reuters/Washington Post reports.

“A pending war funding bill that has already passed the House of Representatives included $2 billion while the Senate version had $1.5 billion,” the newspaper writes. “If … that’s insufficient there’s obviously an opportunity to pass an additional supplemental” at a later date, Hoyer said, adding, “We want to make sure that we have the funds necessary to respond to this pandemic.” Reuters/Washington Post also reports that the White House does not believe the “bills provide the administration enough flexibility to respond to the outbreak of the flu virus” (Polofsky, Reuters/Washington Post, 6/3).

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