The White House submitted a request to Congress on

The White House submitted a request to Congress on Monday for $2.5 billion in supplemental spending to help combat the global coronavirus outbreak.

The request included $1.25 billion in new money, with the rest coming from unspent funds. The measure would help the federal government, as well as state and local agencies, potentially prepare to respond to an outbreak and allocate cash for vaccine development, a senior administration official told Fox Business.

One source familiar with the request told Fox News that the administration was careful “not to sound alarm bells” over the supplemental spending request, but added, “It is better to have, certainly with finite funds.”

Democrats controlling the House wrote HHS Secretary Alex Azar earlier this month to request funds to help speed up the development of a coronavirus vaccine, expand laboratory capacity and beef up screening efforts at U.S. entry points. Azar is slated to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, and the U.S. response to the outbreak is sure to be a major topic.