With COVID-19 funding drying up and no fresh cash infusion from Congress, the Biden administration says it will suspend its offer of free at-home rapid tests through COVID.gov. The program will be put on pause later this week. “Ordering through this program will be suspended on Friday, September 2, because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” a banner alert on the federal website said. The U.S. Postal Service’s free test page also noted the impending halt to the program.
A senior administration official told ABC that the move to pause the program is “to preserve our limited remaining supply” — particularly, to have a reserve in case a potential new wave of the virus sweeps the country in the coming months — “so that we can ensure we have a limited supply of tests available in the fall, when we might face a new rise in infections and more acute need.”
“The administration has been clear about our urgent COVID-19 response funding needs. We have warned that congressional inaction would force unacceptable trade-offs and harm our overall COVID-19 preparedness and response — and that the consequences would likely worsen over time,” the senior administration official said. “We were also clear that failing to provide resources to be prepared would mean that if a surge were to come later, the cost to the American taxpayer would be even higher. 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 altogether,” the official said.