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John, I know there is a lot of anxiety surrounding the spread of COVID-19, also known as the “coronavirus.” I want to quickly update you on what we’ve been doing in Congress to tackle the disease. It bears repeating that the first thing we’ve done is reject the Trump Administration’s multiple requests over his term to cut funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and public health. When Donald Trump gave huge tax breaks to his pals in Mar-a-Lago, his plan was to pay for these with cuts to healthcare benefits and public health departments like the CDC. We fought back. Now, here’s what we’ve done in response to the immediate crisis: On Wednesday, we passed an $8 billion emergency funding bill to combat the spread of COVID-19. This includes more than $2 billion for the CDC, $3 billion for a public health emergency fund that includes money for National Institutes of Health (NIH) vaccine research, and $1.3 billion to provide assistance to Americans who are currently abroad. We also made sure that this money was specifically appropriated to deal with the current crisis so that the Trump Administration can’t “raid” this money for other purposes, and also allocated $300 million to ensure every single American will have access to an eventual vaccine regardless of their ability to pay. I understand that despite these steps we’ve taken, there still may be some anxiety around COVID-19. I’ve opened a public comment form where you can send me any thoughts you have regarding this illness, and I promise to keep you in mind as we take more action to protect the health of all Georgians and Americans.
Thank you — and I promise to keep you apprised of all future developments. Yours, Hank |
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