(Washington) -- Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne is calling on Congress to pass a robust spending package to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Axne is among congressional representatives sending a letter to House and Senate leadership, demanding action on the multibillion dollar bill. Speaking on KMA's "Morning Line" program Wednesday morning, Axne expressed hope that a bill will be finalized before the end of the week.
"Right now, obviously, they're working on a vaccine for it," said Axne, "but that's sometime down the road. So, we hope to pass a funding package to help fight the impact of coronavirus getting deeper into our country."
One of Axne's biggest concerns is that any vaccine developed be affordable to the public.
"We're absolutely looking to ensure that the funding doesn't get pulled from other accounts, but are strictly used for this," she said, "that the vaccines are affordable and available to every single person that needs it. We are looking at hopefully giving things like interest-free loans being made available to small businesses impacted by the outbreak, state and local governments to get reimbursed for costs incurred, while assisting the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak."
While a vaccine for COVIG-19 has yet to be formulated, Axne reminds the public of some simple steps to avoid the virus' spread.
"It's just not going to be as quick as everybody would like," said Axne. "Things just don't happen like that overnight. The best that we can do--everybody needs to be doing right now--is avoiding close contact with people who are sick, stay home when you are sick, avoiding touching your eyes, nose, mouth as much as possible, and absolutely wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands."
The West Des Moines Democrat expressed concerns over the funding bill's delay, and questioned whether the federal government is prepared as it should be to handle coronavrius, concerning certain spending cuts made by the Trump Administration.
"We have a lot of positions in the CDC that were left unfilled, unfortunately," she said. "And, we certainly have gaps in the system that this administration decided not to fill in positions, and not as support as much with the resources that were needed. So, I have faith we have incredibly smart scientists in this country. We're going to be able to get this figured. But, we are starting at a bit of a deficit since we don't have a full house working on this."
You can hear the full interview with Cindy Axne on our "Morning Line" page at kmaland.com.
