Bargainers: Bipartisan deal near on $10B new COVID package

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers have moved to the brink of clinching a bipartisan compromise to provide a fresh $10 billion to combat COVID-19. That could set up final congressional approval next week. The price tag was a reduction from an earlier $15.6 billion compromise that fell apart weeks ago after House Democrats rejected cuts in pandemic aid to states to help pay for it. Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney is a lead negotiator and he says bargainers had reach an agreement in principle on a package that would be completely paid for. The new money would be to purchase vaccines, treatments and tests, which the administration says are running low, even as the more transmissible omicron variant BA.2 spreads.