The claim: Regarding the national shortage of coronavirus tests, “It’s not Obama’s fault and it’s not Trump’s fault. We have stringent FDA regulations, long in place, that created barriers to the private industry creating a test quickly." — U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston.

Crenshaw made the claim on Twitter, in a response to a tweet from Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer.

PolitiFact ruling: True. Crenshaw’s statement is accurate. FDA procedures adopted in 2004 meant laboratories had to seek the agency’s approval before developing and using tests in communities, a policy many health care officials have said prevented the country from taking early action in response to the novel coronavirus.

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Other factors, however, have contributed to the low levels of testing for the virus.

Discussion: Accusations about the responsible party behind the United States’ struggle to accelerate coronavirus testing have come from every which way and the blame has fallen, often inaccurately, on the shoulders of different public officials.

About PolitiFact PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made.

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In a March 13 tweet, President Donald Trump said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied its testing system for decades but wasn’t prepared for a large scale pandemic, an issue that was complicated by policy changes made by former President Barack Obama.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., retweeted Trump’s remark and added his own comment: "Trump is once again trying to blame the previous administration for the number of tests available. This is his #DailyLie."

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PolitiFact looked at a different Trump claim blaming Obama for a lack of testing and rated it False. The fact-checking group also looked at a Mostly False claim from Democrat Joe Biden about the Trump administration rejecting tests from the World Health Organization (they were never offered). Trump also inaccurately stated that any individual who wants to be tested for the coronavirus can get a test — PolitiFact rated that statement Pants on Fire.

To support Crenshaw’s claim, his spokesman Justin Discigil, pointed to articles from ProPublica, the New Yorker, The Atlantic and the Washington Post, all of which highlighted the role FDA regulations played here.

He added: "Just to be clear - nowhere did we say that these regulations were the sole/only reason for the testing issue, we said that they created barriers."

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States came at the end of January, when a man in Washington state developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Wuhan.

In the early days of the virus, tests were not widely distributed to local and state laboratories. Instead, testing for the new coronavirus was conducted almost entirely by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Initial test kits developed by the CDC for use in local and state labs were flawed and produced inaccurate results in some labs, meaning they couldn’t be distributed. As the agency worked to correct the tests, health officials turned to the FDA.

The U.S. Association of Public Health Laboratories submitted a letter asking the agency to use "enforcement discretion" and authorize local and state labs to develop and use their own tests. Health officials have said the FDA regulations prevented them from moving quickly.

On Feb. 29, the FDA announced a change in its process: Labs would still need to seek the agency’s approval for their tests, but the labs could begin testing while waiting for the official green light.

On March 16, (three days after Crenshaw made his claim) the FDA announced another change to its policies and put state officials in charge of coronavirus tests developed by laboratories in their states, meaning labs would engage with state officials and not the FDA.

The changes also expand which labs and manufacturers are included in FDA guidelines and which kinds of tests can be developed.

After the FDA announced changes to its policies, Labcorps and Quest Diagnostics both announced plans to start testing for the new coronavirus, crediting changes in federal policy with their ability to do so.

But even as state and local authorities moved to ramp up testing, the number of available tests is still lacking.