Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Wednesday echoed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling for the Trump administration to extend federal support for several coronavirus testing centers in Texas.
TPM broke the news Tuesday that the administration would end support for 13 testing centers across the country, including seven in Texas, where new COVID cases are spiking.
“I know there’s concern, concern I share, over some of the statements being made about withdrawing federal support for coronavirus testing in Texas at the end of June,” Cornyn said in a statement.
“It’s pretty clear to me, and I think it’s clear to all of us, that with the uptick of cases, now is not a time to retreat from our vigilance in testing,” he added. “I believe that they need to extend that federal support in Texas, at least until we get this most recent uptick in cases addressed.”
That echoed Cruz’s sentiments a few hours earlier. A spokesperson for the junior senator said that he has “has urged and will continue to urge HHS and FEMA to extend the community testing sites in Texas.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not returned TPM’s request for comment on the end of the federal support, though several local public health officials and members of Congress have called for it to continued.
Asked about the development in an interview Tuesday, the governor said simply, “there is a strategy that will supplant and actually be superior to that strategy” which the state will announce “hopefully within a week.”
Josh Kovensky contributed reporting.
