In less than a week, the Trump administration intends to cut off funding and support for 13 Covid-19 coronavirus testing facilities in five states.
The plan, first reported on Tuesday by the Talking Points Memo (TPM) website, comes as virus outbreaks are rapidly growing again in much of the country. The cutoff date is June 30.
The states affected include Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas — where seven testing sites are on the chopping block.
Of those seven, four are in Harris County, which includes Houston, the nation’s 4th-largest city with well over 2 million people.
“Several Texas officials are calling on the administration to extend the support for the sites, with the Houston Health Department’s public health authority writing that the lack of support could cause ‘catastrophic cascading consequences,’” reports The Hill.
Democrats in Congress, like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, are denouncing the plan.
Even conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who usually backs Trump’s actions, is urging the administration to extend its support for the testing sites.
Four other Texas lawmakers signed a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), demanding that the sites remain open through Aug. 30, TPM reported Wednesday.
The letter underscores the fact that Texas “continues to set records for the number of new cases and hospitalizations and Harris County leads the state in the number of confirmed cases,” adding that “Without FEMA’s supplies, fiscal aid and personnel, these sites may no longer be able to serve our communities.”
Texas health officials reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday alone.
Rocky Vaz, director of emergency management for the city of Dallas, which has two of the sites, told TPM that he asked for an extension of federal support, but was turned down.
“They told us very clearly that they are not going to extend it,” Vaz said, adding that the city — strapped for cash like most places during the pandemic and recession — will probably have to hire private contractors to run replacement test sites.
It’s not the first time the Trump administration has sought to end support for the Community-Based Testing Sites program; 41 sites were opened in March by FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and just weeks later the administration tried to bail out of the program. After a public outcry, it reversed course.
Thirteen of those original 41 sites remain in operation, but if the Trump White House gets its way, not for long.