White House against testing funds in stimulus bill, Washington Post reports

NEW YORK — The Trump administration wants to block new funding to help states with testing and contact tracing in an upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks told the Washington Post.

Some Republican senators want to allocate billions of dollars for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic, but met opposition from certain administration officials, the newspaper reported Saturday.

The talks center around a bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is preparing to unveil after Monday as part of the negotiations with Democrats on what would be the fifth legislative action to address the coronavirus, and likely the last before the November election.

The talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux, the Post reported, citing officials it didn’t identify. A White House spokesman declined to comment to Bloomberg News about the Post story.

One person involved in the talks said Senate Republicans were seeking to allocate $25 billion for states to conduct coronavirus testing and contact tracing, but certain officials want to exclude those funds, arguing previously approved aid for testing remains unspent.

President Trump has previously questioned the value of widespread testing, arguing that the numbers of infections would be lower if fewer tests are conducted.

The White House on Thursday signaled Trump may reject a new aid bill if it doesn’t include a payroll tax cut, which is opposed by many Democratic lawmakers as well as some Republicans.