The White House and Senate Republicans are at odds over the amount of funding that should be given to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the next round of stimulus spending, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN on Saturday.
Some Senate Republicans are pushing for more money for
Covid-19 contact tracing and testing, but the White House argues that there is sufficient funding still remaining from the March stimulus law, the source said.
The specifics of the bill are expected to be unveiled next week, so any discussions at this point are just preliminary -- and the amount of funding to propose is a moving target even among GOP members, according to a GOP source. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has kept details of
the bill closely held so far.
"You would have to try hard to come up with a more tone deaf position," one GOP aide said, noting that in recent days, the hope had been that the Trump administration would take coronavirus more seriously in an effort to make it clear to the public and voters that they were managing the crisis.
