Ebola czar hoping for ‘large chunk’ of White House funding request

The White House Ebola czar said Friday that he is hopeful that Congress will pass a “large chunk” of its $6.2 billion emergency funding request, calling the current international funding levels inadequate.

“We need those funds urgently,” Klain said in a panel hosted by Georgetown University. “Resources are running out and the only way we can keep up the response, let alone expand it, to do what we need to do, is by getting that emergency funding request.”

President Obama has requested $6.2 billion to fight Ebola in West Africa and help contain it in the United States.

He is expected to received most of that amount, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A senior member of the Appropriations Committee, Graham said Obama will not receive the entire $1.5 billion contingency fund he requested, but would likely receive the rest.

Congress has until Dec. 11 to pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown.

“We’re really hoping in the next week that Congress wraps up [its funding bill] that a large chunk of that funding will be passed,” said Klain, who has largely avoided public appearances in his two months in the position.

The funds will come as the Ebola crisis continues to worsen in West Africa, where more than 6,000 people have died from the disease.

The massive $6.2 billion funding request far outpaces the $3.4 billion that has already been committed to Ebola, according to the latest figures from the World Bank.