U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar of California was among the 415 members of Congress who voted yes on an $8.3 billion emergency package to address the coronavirus outbreak.
The bipartisan bill came after the Trump administration requested just $2.5 billion in aid.
"Quite frankly, we didn't feel that the administration's dollar amount was up to the task," Aguilar (D-Calif. 31st District) told Cheddar.
The representative also took issue with the White House's plan to raid other federal health programs to offset costs. The administration eyed $136 million in cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, including funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, Ebola treatment and prevention, and heating assistance for low-income households.
"We're not going to sacrifice prevention for treatment for Ebola or other items in order to deal with coronavirus," Aguilar said.
In addition to increased funding, Aguilar called for more information and transparency from government officials. He responded specifically to Trump's comments on the Fox News show Hannity on Wednesday night that the 3.4 percent global mortality rate agreed upon by the World Health Organization earlier this week "is really a false number."
Aguilar said the president stopped just short of calling the number "fake news," and that speculation of this kind impedes efforts to keep people informed.
"The public health world and the World Health Organization don't care what the president's hunch is about these numbers," he said. "We need more folks in white lab coats briefing the public rather than the president going on the partisan Hannity show."
The vast majority of the new funding ($7.8 million) will go to agencies working to fight the outbreak, with $500 million set aside for Medicare providers to use telehealth options for elderly patients so they can avoid potentially exposing themselves by visiting a doctor's office.
The aid package is now headed to the Senate, which is expected to approve the funding, and then onto Trump's desk.
"We'll spend whatever is appropriate," the president said last week.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
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President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
