Trump seeks to block funding for CDC, tracing and testing

WASHINGTON D.C. — (07-18-20) — The Trump administration is seeking to block billions of dollars for COVID-19 contact tracing, additional testing and other coronavirus support efforts that would be included in Congress’s next COVID-19 relief package, officials involved in the negotiations told The Washington Post.

According to The Washington Post’s sources, Trump’s administration trying to block billions in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that GOP senators want given to the agency as it continues to battle COVID-19.

The administration also wants to take out billions of dollars that would go to the Pentagon and State Department for them to better combat the pandemic both domestically and internationally.

While negotiations are on going, officials involved told the Washington Post that the administration’s stance perturbed several high ranking GOP senators who want the money to stay in the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Friday that the Senate Republicans’ version of a new COVID-19 relief package could be unveiled this coming week.

While House Democrats passed a relief package at the end of May, McConnell has been dead set against continuing the $600 a week Federal UI for Americans. The bill has sat on his desk since May.

The House Democrats and Senate Republicans aren’t even close to having an agreed upon bill yet, and any friction between GOP senators and Trump officials would only widen the quagmire.

On Friday, nearly 76,000 new cases of coronavirus, a record, and added another 70,831 on Saturday, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

With numbers like that its no wonder the majority of states have ordered mandatory masks in public.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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