WMUR
By John DiStaso
April 23, 2020

MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire’s congressional delegation said the Granite State is set to receive about $17 million for COVID-19 testing in legislation expected to be voted on by the House Thursday afternoon.

The $480 billion, which contained $25 billion for testing nationally, bill passed the Senate on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation into law.

“Testing is key to re-opening our economy and getting life back to some semblance of normal. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has not been able to make tests widely available, which is why I fought for this funding to help New Hampshire’s testing efforts,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. “In particular, our frontline workers and vulnerable Granite Staters need to be able to access testing quickly which is why this funding can’t come soon enough.”

“To begin to reopen more parts of the economy and get Granite Staters back to work, we’ll need to massively expand COVID-19 testing, which is why it was so important that we successfully secured additional funding in the latest bipartisan COVID-19 response bill to address this need,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan. “This federal funding to New Hampshire will help our state address testing shortages, and, crucially, the agreement also requires the Trump administration to put forward a plan to increase testing.”

“Reopening New Hampshire’s economy goes hand in hand with addressing the public health emergency posed by coronavirus,” said U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster. “This funding will help our state expand access to coronavirus testing so we can protect our frontline workers and prevent further spread of this virus within our communities.”

“Our capacity to test for COVID-19 continues to be woefully inadequate, and we need a national strategy to allow us to ramp up testing and supplies in the fight against this pandemic,” said U.S. Rep.Chris Pappas. “I share the frustration of many health care and public health experts, and know solving this problem is a matter of life and death. That is why this $17 million in funding, which the House will approve today, is so crucial to help our frontline health care workers make the necessary progress we need to beat this virus and get New Hampshire back on its feet and back to work.”