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Friend,

"Slow down the testing, please."

That's what Donald Trump boasted about at his (poorly attended) campaign rally in Tulsa this weekend. He supposedly told his staff to slow down testing across the country to make it look like the United States had fewer COVID-19 cases than it actually did. His staff claimed he was "joking," but he followed it up in an interview with Scripps News saying:

"If we did slow it down, we wouldn't show nearly as many cases."

This is no joke. Senate Democrats have also learned that the Department of Health and Human Services has yet to spend $14 billion of the $25 billion appropriated by Congress to improve COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. This proves this isn't a joke -- it's a calculated, deadly decision by the Trump administration.

There have been more than 2.3 million cases of diagnosed COVID-19 in the United States. Of those, 122,000 Americans have died.

Congress took the situation seriously by giving the administration the funds it needed to fight this virus and keep Americans safe through testing and contact tracing. It seems all we've gotten instead are "jokes" that could kill even more Americans.

We need to speak up, and we need to speak up now. This is no laughing matter, and President Trump and HHS Secretary Azar need to be reminded of that: Add your name to tell them to immediately disburse the congressionally allocated funds necessary to speed up testing to keep Americans safe.

Sincerely,

Chuck Schumer