The Trump administration is balking at $25 billion in new funding favored by Republican lawmakers in the next relief bill to help states with coronavirus testing and contact tracing, said a person familiar with the talks.
Also opposed is a plan to allocate billions of additional dollars for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and extra funding for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic around the world, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
A spokesman for Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger in November’s election, termed the administration’s efforts "absolutely unconscionable.”