Lawmakers have come to the brink of a handshake, reaching a scaled-down bipartisan compromise to provide a fresh $10 billion to fight COVID-19, a deal that could receive final congressional approval next week.

This price tag dropped An earlier $15.6 billion deal crashed a few weeks ago That comes after House Democrats refused to cut unused pandemic aid to states to help pay for it. President Joe Biden requested $22.5 billion in early March. As leaders hope to quickly pass the package through Congress, the reduced costs appear to reflect both parties’ calculations that agreeing on additional savings anytime soon will be too difficult.

The effort will fund steps such as vaccines, treatments and testing, as Biden and other Democrats warn the administration is No money to deal with the epidemic. Meanwhile, the more transmissible omicron variant, BA.2, has spread rapidly in the United States and abroad.

“We’ve reached an agreement in principle on all spending and all compensation,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the top Republican negotiator, told reporters on Thursday, using Washington’s slogan to save money . “It’s completely balanced by offset.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and others were more cautious.

“We’re getting closer to a final agreement that has bipartisan support,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. He said lawmakers were still finalizing the bill’s components and language and awaiting cost estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

When asked about Romney’s assessment, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairman of the Senate Health Committee and another negotiator, said: “I hope.”

Once finalized, an agreement would represent a bipartisan fight against an epidemic that dissipated a year ago, when a larger, $1.9 trillion in measures The new president’s proposal passed Congress only by Democratic votes. Much of the bill goes to help struggling families, businesses and communities, and the bill will specifically target public health.

Many Republicans have been open to new spending, but have insisted on paying for them with untapped funds from previous bills enacted by Congress to deal with the pandemic.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who helped negotiate the deal, said half of the $10 billion in new measures would go to treatment. He said top federal health officials would be given broad discretion to spend the rest, but that would include research and other steps to combat the disease, which has killed about 975,000 Americans and hundreds of people around the world. Thousands died.

Romney and others said the bipartisan-agreed savings for the new bill do not include cuts to state aid opposed by House Democrats. He said some of the unused funds will be taken out of another pandemic program that provides money to state and local governments for grants to local businesses.

The two sides also agreed to save, Blunt said, including recoupling the unspent $2.2 billion to help entertainment venues closed during the pandemic, and more than $2 billion still available to help aerospace manufacturing.

Romney said the $10 billion could include $1 billion for vaccines, treatments and other support for countries overseas. Blunt said that number does not appear to be resolved. One-third of the previous $15.6 billion in measures was planned for overseas.

The lowered figure for aid to other countries has been opposed in the House of Representatives, with some Democrats wanting to raise it. Epidemiologists point to the need to vaccinate more people around the world and reduce the chances of the virus developing new variants.

“It’s an issue,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters. “It’s a shame.”

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said officials were “very hopeful” of a deal and urged lawmakers to provide funding to help other countries deal with the disease.

“We cannot put this epidemic behind us until we stop the spread and spread of new variants around the world,” Bedingfield said.

Leaders hope Congress will approve the bill before lawmakers take their spring recess after next week.

Republicans have leverage in the Democratic-controlled 50-50 Senate, as 60 votes are needed to pass most major bills. Both Romney and Blunt said they believed the final package they described would attract far more than the 10 Republicans needed.

Since the pandemic began, Congress has approved more than $5 trillion to address the economic and health crisis it has created. Only a fraction of that goes to public health programs such as vaccines.

In an interview with Punchbowl News earlier Thursday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the measure’s price tag appeared to have dropped to $10 billion as Democrats disagreed with the additional savings .

Minutes later, Schumer came to the Senate without mentioning any numbers, but hinted that its size could be down.

“I implore my Republican colleagues to join us,” Schumer said. “We have more than you want, but we have to get something done. We have to get something done.”

Asked if he thought a deal could be reached before lawmakers adjourn, McConnell said: “We’ll see. Hope so.”