Last-minute US spend­ing bill fea­tures a be­gin­ning for ARPA-H, and half of what Biden re­quest­ed for Covid-19

The House and Sen­ate are again rac­ing against the clock to pass an an­nu­al $1.5 tril­lion gov­ern­ment spend­ing bill, with a tight dead­line Fri­day that may have to be briefly ex­tend­ed to ear­ly next week.

Un­der the 2,700+ page bill for 2022, re­leased just af­ter mid­night on Wednes­day, fund­ing for Covid-re­lat­ed pro­vi­sions will on­ly hit $15.6 bil­lion af­ter the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion pre­vi­ous­ly re­quest­ed about $30 bil­lion to help pre­pare for the next wave of cas­es.

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