(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), released the following statement regarding the $25 billion dollar investment in expanding COVID-19 testing, surveillance, and contact tracing included in the bipartisan COVID-19 response bill the Senate passed earlier today. The legislation also requires the Trump Administration to develop a plan to increase testing capacity and address disparities, and it requires the Administration to report on demographic data. Democrats’ progress in securing the testing funds comes after Senator Murray led her colleagues last week in introducing a new policy white paper on how to rapidly expanding COVID-19 testing capacity to the level needed to safely reopen the economy.
“I’m glad we could reach a bipartisan agreement to provide needed resources to expand testing and build out our public health capacity-but we absolutely need to do more to hold this Administration accountable to providing a detailed plan, and acting on it. We can’t let this Administration get away with doing the bare minimum, and we certainly can’t let President Trump continue leaving states to fend for themselves and fight with each other for supplies.
“The funding provided in this agreement is a good start, but resources alone are not enough to get us back on track. When you’re running late, a fast car with a full tank may be a good start, but you still need a driver who knows where they’re going. Unfortunately when it comes to testing, no one from this Administration has had a map, or even been at the wheel.
“That’s why this bipartisan agreement requires the Administration to develop and report on a plan to increase testing, as well as to report on and address disparities-but we need to hold the Administration’s feet to the fire here, so that the plan Congress has required actually gets us to a point where we can monitor and suppress COVID-19 and begin to safely reopen our economy. I will be following their progress closely and pushing for stronger accountability on testing in future negotiations."
In the white paper released last week, “A Roadmap to Reopening by Ensuring a Speedy and Ubiquitous Lab Testing System (RESULTS)," Senator Murray outlined the following principles for rapidly expanding COVID-19 testing:
Senator Murray has repeatedly criticized the Trump Administration’ missteps and delays regarding testing capacity and pressured them to address testing related issues. See a full timeline of Senator Murray’s efforts on diagnostic testing below.
