More money for testing at issue

Negotiations on next relief bill face many sticking points

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is trying to block funding for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the next coronavirus relief bill, because they believe there is still aid for that purpose that remains unspent, people involved in the talks said Saturday.

One person said Senate Republicans were seeking to allocate $25 billion for states to conduct testing and contact tracing, but that certain administration officials want to zero out the testing and tracing money. Some White House officials said they have already approved billions of dollars in assistance for testing in previous bills.

The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said.

The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.

The negotiations center around a bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is preparing to unveil this week as part of negotiations with Democrats on what will likely be the last major virus relief bill before the November election.

The two political parties are far apart on a number of issues, such as unemployment insurance. Some lawmakers are trying to reach a deal quickly, as enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of Americans are set to expire in less than two weeks.

In late May, there were fewer than 20,000 new cases of coronavirus reported each day. On Friday, there were more than 76,000 new cases reported.

Roughly 3.7 million Americans have already tested positive for coronavirus in the United States, according to a Washington Post analysis. Wait times for test results can vary by state, but in some places people have to wait more than a week to find out if they have tested positive.

Trump and other White House officials have been pushing for states to own more of the responsibility for testing and have objected to creating national standards.

The last major virus spending that Congress approved, in April, included $25 billion to increase testing and also required the Health and Human Services Department to release a strategic testing plan. The agency did so in May, but the plan mainly reasserted the administration’s insistence that states — not the federal government — should take the lead on testing.

Several Senate Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., are exploring pushing a testing and tracing provision in the next stimulus package.

“Cases and deaths are now both rising again, including in many red states,” said Sam Hammond, a policy expert at the right-leaning think tank the Niskanen Center, which has been working with Senate Republicans on testing legislation. “Senate Republicans have asked for funding to help states purchase test kits in bulk. As it currently stands, the main bottleneck to a big ramp-up in testing is less technical than the White House’s own intransigence.”

The administration is also seeking to zero out $10 billion in new funding for the CDC in the upcoming bill, while slashing spending for the Pentagon and State Department related to foreign aid, the person said. Trump has been skeptical of State Department spending and foreign aid generally, but it was unclear why the administration would seek to block money for the Pentagon for a variety of covid-related expenses such as reimbursing contractors for providing paid leave to employees.

A White House spokesman declined to comment.

Congress has already approved roughly $3 trillion in spending and tax cuts in its response to the pandemic. Some White House officials had hoped to keep the next bill below $1 trillion, but they also want to include numerous elements that could prove costly. For example, Trump has demanded a payroll tax cut as part of the legislation. And he also wants to include another round of stimulus checks, though lawmakers are split on how to design new payments.