Coronavirus Response: Democrats Push For $10 Billion For Community Health Centers In Infrastructure Bill

House Democrats have proposed $10 billion in funding for community health centers as part of an infrastructure bill amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The next legislative measures to respond to the pandemic have been called “phase four,” after three coronavirus response bills were already signed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has called an infrastructure bill “essential because of the historic nature of the health and economic emergency that we are confronting.” She wants the House to move forward with the proposal after the legislative body returns on April 20.

Pelosi outlined other priorities for new legislation Tuesday while appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

"Everything we're doing is specific to the coronavirus challenge, and that would be to do infrastructure for water systems that are so essential, broadband because so many people are relying on telecommunication and social media and the rest," she said. She has refuted Republican claims that Democrats are using the crisis as a “wishlist” to pursue certain policies.

"If anybody puts a dime in phase four unrelated to the virus, they're going to be very famous, because people are dying in this country — it is not time to do the Green New Deal," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News on Tuesday.

President Trump has also promoted the idea of an infrastructure bill, as the Federal Reserve slashes interest rates to zero.

"With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country!"

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that he has had “ongoing conversations” with Democrats about infrastructure proposals.

Trump has declared the ongoing coronavirus outbreak a national emergency. During a White House press briefing Tuesday, Trump said the next two weeks would be “very painful,” as cases surge across the country.