Marianne Levine at Politico:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday rejected an offer from the Trump administration to provide Congress with rapid results testing, citing the need to direct resources where they are most needed.
“Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time," McConnell (R-Ky.) and Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement. "Our country’s testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly."
Instead, the two leaders said Congress will rely on the testing procedures outlined by the Office of the Attending Physician until “these speedier technologies become more widely available.”
The move caps a remarkable few days, with senators deeply anxious about returning to the Capitol amid the pandemic and the White House facing criticism that it was getting better treatment than Congress.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced late Friday night that the Senate would receive three rapid-results testing machines and 1,000 tests.
President Donald Trump also weighed in Saturday morning saying that “there is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital Hill” and that “the 5 minute Abbott Test will be used.”
On Saturday evening following the release of the McConnell-Pelosi statement, Trump wrote in a tweet there was "No reason to turn it down, except politics."
The Senate is scheduled to return Monday, just as Washington nears its peak of coronavirus cases.
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