As the coronavirus continues to spread, Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation Thursday to divert all the funds for constructing President Donald Trump’s border wall to efforts to combat the contagious disease.

The two-page bill would apply to all border wall funds, including money appropriated by Congress and the much larger amount that the Trump administration diverted from other projects for construction. While emergency spending typically isn’t taken from other purposes, Warren’s office says the bill would provide an estimated $10 billion down payment for the government’s coronavirus response.

“Rather than use taxpayer dollars to pay for a monument to hate and division, my bill will help ensure that the federal government has the resources it needs to adequately respond to this emergency,” the Massachusetts senator said in a statement, noting that the outbreak “poses serious health, diplomatic, and economic threats to the United States.”


“We must be prepared to confront it head-on,” she said.

Warren, among other Democratic presidential candidates, has been critical of Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has resulted in more than 2,800 deaths and over 80,000 reported cases across 47 countries. This week, public health officials warned of its “inevitable” spread in the United States. In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Trump tried to calm those fears, which have rattled stock markets, and asserted that his administration is “very, very ready” for whatever a COVID-19 outbreak may bring.

Warren’s office criticized the Republican administration’s emergency funding proposals as insufficient. Trump has requested $2.5 billion for a plan to “accelerate vaccine development, support preparedness and response activities and to procure much-needed equipment and supplies.” The request was far less than what Democrats have proposed. And while half of the money would comes from new funds, the other $1.25 billion would reportedly be diverted from other programs, including from Ebola preparedness and low-income housing energy assistance.

During a CNN town hall Wednesday night, Warren said her proposal to divert money from the border wall instead reflected her focus on “allocation” and “our overall approach.”

The Bay State Democrat has also criticized Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which were ignored by Congress). Trump defended the proposed cuts Wednesday, telling reporters that the agency was inefficient and if it needed more staffing “we could get them very quickly.”


In a plan released by her campaign last month, Warren pledged to increase funding for pandemic prevention and response programs, both in the United States and abroad.

During her CNN town hall, Warren also said that Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump has appointed to coordinate the government’s coronavirus response, should be “disqualified” from the role, alluding to his handling of an HIV outbreak as governor of Indiana in 2015.

“What was his approach? It was to put politics over science and let a serious virus expand in his state and cost people lives,” Warren said.