Both the White House and the website where people can claim their tests blamed Congress for failing to provide additional funding for the program, which provided up to 16 free tests per household since the beginning of the year.
“We have warned that Congressional inaction would force unacceptable tradeoffs and harm our overall COVID-19 preparedness and response—and that the consequences would likely worsen over time,” the White House official told CNN. “Unfortunately, because of the limited funding we have to work with, we have had to make impossible choices about which tools and programs to invest in—and which ones we must downsize, pause, or end all together.”
Still, the official said the administration would “expeditiously resume distribution of free tests through COVIDTests.gov” if and when Congress allocates additional funding, but “[u]ntil then, we believe reserving the remaining tests for distribution later this year is the best course.”
