{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blunt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/umkc-washu-awarded-grant-funding-from-blunt-led-covid-19-testing-initiative-to-expand-outreach-to-underserved-communities", "UMKC, WashU Awarded Grant Funding from Blunt-Led COVID-19 Testing Initiative to Expand Outreach to Underserved Communities", "2020-11-23", "2020", "2020-11", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Roy Blunt", "B000575", "www.blunt.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) today welcomed the\r\nNational Institutes of Health's (NIH) announcement that two Missouri\r\ninstitutions, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) and the University of\r\nMissouri  Kansas City (UMKC) have been selected to receive grant funding\r\nthrough the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations (RADx-UP)\r\nprogram. WashU will receive $2.28 million and UMKC will receive $1.9 million to\r\nimprove COVID-19 testing among underserved and vulnerable communities. The\r\nRADx-UP program is part of the RADx initiative, which Blunt and U.S. Senator\r\nLamar Alexander (Tenn.) proposed and Congress created in April. While we are seeing encouraging news on the COVID-19\r\nvaccine front, testing will continue to be a critical part of getting people\r\nback to school, work, child care, and daily life, said Blunt. The RADx\r\ninitiative is bringing new testing technologies to market faster so we can\r\nvastly increase our nationwide testing capacity. The RADx-UP grants will take\r\nthose efforts a step further by making sure testing is available and utilized\r\nwhere it's needed most, especially among underserved and vulnerable\r\npopulations. From the outset of this pandemic, we have worked to ensure funding\r\nwas available to respond to the unique needs local communities face. That will\r\ncontinue to be a priority in our response efforts.  Under the $2.5 billion Shark Tank-style RADx program, NIH,\r\nthe Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and private\r\nindustry are working together to develop new ways to produce tens of millions\r\nof COVID-19 diagnostic tests that are capable of providing quick, inexpensive\r\nresults. The RADx initiative is currently supporting 22 companies\r\nwith manufacturing expansion contracts, which are expected to add 2.7 million\r\ntests per day by the end of the year. More information on the RADx-UP grants for WashU and UMKC is\r\navailable here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blunt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/umkc-washu-awarded-grant-funding-from-blunt-led-covid-19-testing-initiative-to-expand-outreach-to-underserved-communities"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5260246582329273, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}