Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House will soon proceed with an expansion of COVID-19 testing due to the Air Force providing up to 2,000 tests for the entire Congress.
Pelosi made the announcement during a Democratic leadership call on the same day that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled new rules requiring travelers to the nation’s capital to test negative for COVID-19 before and after arrival.
The Air Force will provide the COVID-19 tests for Congress at no additional cost for the next six weeks, according to a senior Democratic aide. The aide added that a longer-term solution is being discussed.
Bowser said Thursday that people traveling to Washington from states considered COVID-19 hot spots would no longer have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival and would instead have to get tested within 72 hours of arriving in the city.
However, the testing requirement won’t be enforced at points of entry like roads or airports. Instead, Bowser indicated that places like hotels, employers and universities could require proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
Bowser said she is still encouraging people not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, but acknowledged that “we also know that people are going to come here.”
Many lawmakers — who regularly have to travel back and forth between their districts all over the country and Washington — have been calling for an expansion of COVID-19 testing on Capitol Hill for months.
The previous order from Bowser requiring people to quarantine if they had traveled for “non-essential” activities didn’t apply to members of Congress since their travel is considered essential for government work.
The calls most recently grew louder after President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last month. But House members have largely been out of Washington since early October and the chamber isn’t scheduled to come back into session until Nov. 16.
The White House has had a rapid testing regime in place — which caught Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-Texas) case in July — for everyone who comes into contact with the president.
Same-day COVID-19 testing has long been available from the Capitol’s attending physician for lawmakers who have symptoms or think they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Staffers in contact with known COVID-19 cases in the Capitol can also get tested.
But unlike the White House, testing has not been mandatory.
Pelosi did institute a requirement that everyone wear masks on the House floor and in the surrounding office buildings in July following Gohmert’s diagnosis. Gohmert, along with some other House GOP lawmakers, had at times not worn a mask on the House floor or while attending committee hearings.
Compliance with the House mask mandate has been virtually universal since it went into effect. GOP lawmakers who had previously resisted pressure to wear masks on the House floor quickly complied once they became required.
More than a dozen other House members have tested positive for COVID-19, including Reps. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Ben McAdams (D-Utah), Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Tom Rice (R-S.C.).