White House Sends Spending Wish List to Congress

The White House reportedly wants Congress to provide more money for an experimental Ebola drug and give the administration more flexibility for dealing with the border crisis when it approves a stopgap spending bill this month.

According to the Associated Press, an administration request sent to House and Senate committees this week includes an additional $58 million for the Centers for Disease Control to speed up production on the experimental Ebola drug, ZMapp, amid reports that the outbreak of the deadly disease is accelerating in Africa. The administration also wants permission to shift $10 million between accounts to help fight Ebola.

On the border, the White House is not resubmitting the $3.7 billion funding request to deal with the influx of Central American migrant children seeking entry through Mexico. The House and Senate could not agree on a border bill before they left for their August recess, and they aren't expected to try again before the November elections.

But the Obama administration is asking Congress to allow more flexibility in spending money currently allocated in dealing with the border crisis, the AP reported.

With federal funding expiring on Sept. 30, Congress is expected to consider what's known as a continuing resolution to keep the government open at least through mid-December. Such a measure generally just keeps funding as is, so the budget request sent by the White House Office of Management and Budget just lays out tweaks it wants to the bill, which Congress can accept or ignore.

House and Senate aides have said lawmakers are looking for a relatively "clean" stopgap spending measure that would not make dramatic changes ahead of the election. The most contentious item on the White House wish list is its request for Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, a lending agency that conservatives want to scrap.

House Republicans are expected to renew the bank, but only temporarily.

(Image via Andrea Izzotti / Shutterstock.com)