Illinois' Senior Senator says historic investments made under President Biden's Administration are allowing Americans to be more prepared when it comes to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Dick Durbin said investments from the American Rescue Plan are paying dividends in the public health sector.

According to Durbin, the plan provides more than one billion dollars in genomic sequencing, a process to analyze how the COVID-19 virus is evolving and spreading in real-time. Health officials say the funding allows them to track the new variant unlike the ones before.