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Law360 (October 6, 2020, 4:18 PM EDT) -- Top House Democrats criticized Trump administration health officials Tuesday for failing to enact a national COVID-19 testing strategy, saying the lack of "clear and consistent guidance" continues to place essential workers at risk.
In a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, Democratic Reps. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Frank Pallone of New Jersey urged the federal government to issue uniform testing guidelines.
The congressmen, who chair the House Education and Labor and Energy and Commerce committees, respectively, said the federal government has bungled its approach to increasing access to COVID-19 tests by not distributing congressionally approved funding — a move they said disproportionately affects uninsured essential workers.
"There are currently no CDC recommendations outlining how employers should provide continued diagnostic testing for workers," they wrote. "Lack of clear and consistent guidance leaves employers, state and local health officials, and frontline health care workers responsible for developing and implementing often disparate protocols and procedures."
The lawmakers said billions of dollars in funding for coronavirus testing are still on the table.
HHS hasn't distributed nearly a third of the $25 billion in Paycheck Protection Program funds allocated for testing expenses, they said. And the federal government has yet to distribute more than three-quarters of the $2 billion in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act set aside for free testing for people who are uninsured, they added.
"Despite repeated calls on the Trump administration to develop a national coronavirus testing strategy and vigorously ensure compliance with requirements that testing be made available to workers, the White House has been unwilling to provide states with a clear strategy or even disperse the resources Congress has already dedicated to ensuring communities have access to adequate COVID-19 testing," Scott and Pallone wrote.
Some governors are requiring employers to implement routine testing in workplaces where the virus has run rampant, such as nursing homes and meat processing facilities. But these requirements vary among states.
"Clear and consistent recommendations and guidance on routine COVID-19 diagnostic testing for employers would prevent lengthy disruptions for essential businesses in the event of a localized COVID-19 outbreak," they wrote, "and they are particularly critical for protecting low-income essential workers and their families."
Scott and Pallone also said Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act guidance issued in June left out some testing from mandatory insurance coverage in violation of federal law.
Spokespeople for the Health and Labor departments did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
