Following Murray Proposal, Democrats Secure Testing Expansion In Latest COVID-19 Package

Senate passes COVID-19 package including $25 billion to rapidly expand U.S. testing

Bill will also require Administration to develop plan to scale up testing and address disparities, report demographic data

Senator Murray outlined a roadmap to ramp up testing capacity last week

Senator Murray: “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.”

Senator Murray: “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.”

(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:

1. Requiring a strategic plan to leverage a “whole of society” response;
2. Emergency funding to enable rapid scaling of testing and the full range of activities that support testing and maximize its impact;
3. Pipeline to develop, validate, and allocate accurate, reliable tests to ensure adequate supply;
4. Structures to administer tests in every community across the country;
5. Robust public health infrastructure to respond to results and better contain COVID-19; and
6. Transparency and accountability across the testing system.

 
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.

• January 27, 2020: Senator Murray writes to Secretary Azar about the coronavirus response, asks about diagnostic testing capacity.
• February 4, 2020: Senator Murray, Representative Derek Kilmer write to CDC Director Redfield urging distribution of tests to state and local health officials.
• February 25, 2020: Senator Murray grills Secretary Azar about preparedness and diagnostic testing issues in LHHS hearing.
• March 3, 2020: Senator Murray presses public health officials on response and ability to scale up testing at HELP hearing.
• March 5, 2020: Senator Murray writes to Vice President Pence demanding answers on testing delays.
• March 10, 2020: Senators Murray, Wyden, and Schumer write to Vice President Pence about testing availability and affordability.
• March 10, 2020: As the number of U.S. cases passes 1,000, Secretary Azar says “we don’t how” many patients have been tested for COVID-19 and CDC Director Redfield says U.S. labs may not have an adequate stock of supplies used to obtain results from a patient’s sample. 
• March 12, 2020: Senator Murray calls on Administration to name one individual solely responsible for immediately improving testing efforts.
• March 13, 2020: Administration announces Admiral Giroir, HHS Assistant Secretary, will be in charge of testing efforts among public health service agencies.
• March 16, 2020: Senator Murray and Senator Warren send a letter requesting information from HHS about the many failures throughout the testing process.
• March 19 2020: Senator Murray call on the HHS OIG to investigate the Trump Administration’s delays in developing, deploying, and analyzing testing for the novel coronavirus.
• March 21, 2020: Senator Murray and Senator Peters send a letter to Vice President Pence requesting the Administration make information about nationwide testing capacity, hospital bed space, personal protective equipment inventories, and more publicly available to improve transparency and efficiency in Coronavirus response efforts.
• March 27, 2020: Senator Murray writes to Vice President Pence demanding transparency around the Trump Administration’s failure to assist states as they face dire shortages of medical supplies—including test and supplies needed to conduct them.
• April 7, 2020: Senator Murray and Senator Wyden write to CDC requesting it publicly report all available information about who is able to access COVID-19 tests.
• April 13, 2020: Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell call on Vice President Pence to conduct a national inventory of the coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnostic testing supply, publicly release data on testing results, and provide a detailed plan and timeline for addressing future shortages and gaps in the testing supply chain.
• April 15, 2020: Senator Murray announced Roadmap to RESULTS, an agenda to rapidly expand COVID-19 testing.
• April, 17, 2020: Senator Murray responses to HHS OIG announcing an investigation into CDC’s testing issues.

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