Two Democrats say the Health and Human Services Department needs to quickly award $8 billion provided by Congress.
The Trump administration has yet to distribute nearly one-third of the funds provided by Congress for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, leading Senate Democrats say.
The Department of Health and Human Services has neither spent nor detailed how it plans to spend $8 billion out of a $25 billion pot to be used for stemming the virus’s spread through diagnostic and antibody testing and contact tracing, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N. Y.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) charge. The funds were provided as part of the fourth pandemic relief bill passed by Congress at the end of April.
“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,” according to a letter the pair wrote to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, obtained by The Washington Post.
HHS did not respond immediately to inquiries about the letter. But it is true that a massive amount of money has been allocated for the nation’s coronavirus response and spending it effectively is a typical challenge when it comes to clunky bureaucracies.
The United States has now conducted more than 26 million coronavirus tests, equivalent to about eight percent of the nation’s population.
