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 Most of the request is aimed at the immediate response to the
disease at home and abroad. But the package also includes $1.5
billion in contingency funds - money that could become a target if
lawmakers decide to trim the bill.
"That is the part of the package that is most at risk," said Sam
Worthington, president of InterAction, an alliance of U.S.
non-governmental aid groups.
While lawmakers recognize that the United States had to take action
to arrest the deadly disease, some are wary of giving the
administration leeway in investing money in public health systems in
West Africa.
"I think there is less understanding of the need to stay in it for
the long run and to build the capacity of countries to ensure this
doesn't happen in the future," Worthington said in an interview.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed at least 5,987 people
since March, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Obama administration came under fire in September after a series
of missteps with a man who traveled to Dallas from Liberia and later
died of Ebola. Two nurses contracted the disease while caring for
the man.
Screening and treatment procedures have since been tightened. There
are no current U.S. cases, and stories about the outbreak have faded
from headlines.
"My hope is that we're not getting Ebola fatigue setting in," said
Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, a Christian missionary group
helps treat Ebola patients in Liberia. "There continues to be a huge
need for this funding."
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On Tuesday, Obama will tour and speak at the National Institutes of
Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where a team of researchers last week
published promising results from the first phase of a research trial
for an Ebola vaccine.
The vaccine could go into testing in West Africa in the next few
weeks - a sign of progress Obama will praise in his remarks, a
senior administration official said in an interview.
The contingency funds requested from Congress could be used to help
manufacture and distribute a successful vaccine, the official said.
"They're having questions about the contingency fund, but we think
as we answer those questions, people understand why it's necessary,"
the official said.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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