GOP must stop stalling on the COVID-19 relief bill
After months of inaction and obstruction by the White House and Senate Leadership, House Democrats said “enough” and passed an updated $2.2 trillion relief bill to help millions of families struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.
As much as the Trump administration has tried to pretend otherwise, the pandemic is not over, as the outbreak at the White House makes clear. Tens of millions of workers are unemployed. The number of families living without enough food has skyrocketed. Businesses across the country, and in the Bay Area, continue to close, many of them for good.
In May, the House passed the comprehensive HEROES Act relief package to help families stay in their homes and put food on the table, to support first responders and essential workers, to give schools the resources they need to reopen safely, and to fund the testing, tracing and treatment programs that we need to stop the virus.
For almost five months, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, has refused to allow a vote on the bill in the Senate and has made no serious counterproposals. Meanwhile, close to 1,000 people will die from the disease today alone.
We are facing the worst public health crisis and the worst economic disaster of our lifetimes. If we don’t want things to get even worse, our government has to step up and help people get through these overlapping crises.
The updated HEROES Act passed Oct. 1 seeks to achieve three goals: defeat the virus, recover the economy, and safeguard our democracy.
Specifically, the bill provides $75 billion for testing and treatment, with a focus on the disparities facing communities of color. Black, Brown and Indigenous people have suffered the most from COVID. Language included at my request will ensure that testing, tracing and treatment efforts partner with leaders in those communities.
On the economic side, the bill includes another round of stimulus payments to families that need it: $1,200 for adults and $500 for all dependents. It also restores the $600 per week expanded unemployment assistance that ran out in July. It includes a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for all renters and homeowners, gets relief to businesses to cover payroll through grants, and creates a $120 billion grant program for restaurants, which are in dire need of help in the Bay Area and elsewhere.
The bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars to fund child care and help schools reopen safely and efficiently.
Here in California, we’re also dealing with historic wildfires that have caused incomprehensible damage and blanketed our cities with smoke. My colleagues and I in the California delegation fought hard to ensure our state will receive targeted relief. The bill includes an estimated $37 billion for state and local governments in California. The seven cities in my district would receive $458 million to pay for health and economic initiatives, fill budget gaps and allow our communities to not only survive these disasters but to thrive thereafter.
Finally, weeks before the most consequential election of our lifetimes, in which one candidate is doing everything in his power to suppress the vote and undermine the result, our legislation includes safeguards for our democracy — for example $15 billion to make sure the U.S. Postal Service can do its job.
Once again, my colleagues in the House are showing their commitment to fighting this pandemic and putting our economy back on track. I hope that Senate Republicans and the Trump administration will finally join us in this effort to provide urgently needed relief to the American people and to invest in the longterm health and economic security of our communities.
We are facing the worst public health crisis and the worst economic disaster of our lifetimes. If we don’t want things to get even worse, our government has to step up and help people get through these overlapping crises.