With more than 2.3 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in America and a staggering 122,000 deaths, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) say President Donald Trump is sitting on about $14 billion in funding for virus testing and contact tracing.
In a letter Schumer and Murray sent this week to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the senators reveal that the Trump administration has “still failed” to distribute more than $8 billion out of $25 billion appropriated by Congress to expand testing and contact tracing.
The senators wrote that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also hadn’t awarded nearly $4 billion for surveillance and contact tracing at the state and local levels and tribal territories, and little of the $2 billion that was set aside for free testing of uninsured people has been disbursed.
“While it has been months since these funds were first appropriated, the Administration has failed to disburse significant amounts of this funding, leaving communities without the resources they need to address the significant challenges presented by the virus,” the senators wrote.
For the $8 billion in unused funds for ramping up testing and contact tracing, the senators said that it’s critical that the administration immediately release the funds and focus the money on contact tracing and collecting data on racial and ethnic disparities in connection to COVID-19.
