The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars in aid to the states to pay for coronavirus testing and contact tracing.
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The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.
The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for 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.
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One person involved in the talks 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 entirely.
Trump has been very clear in his desire to stop testing, or he put it at his infamous Tulsa rally, slow down the testing.
The President thinks that he can make the pandemic disappear if people stop being tested. Since convincing people that they don’t need to be tested didn’t work, Trump has moved on to trying to stop the states from having the money that they need for testing.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about life and death. In another sign that Senate Republicans are getting close to breaking with Trump, some of them are pushing back on Trump’s desire to block funding for testing.
Trump wants the coronavirus to disappear, and he is willing to kill possibly hundreds of thousands of Americans to make it look like the virus is gone.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
