To beat COVID-19, we must establish a robust testing and contact tracing program that helps us track and ultimately contain the virus. The former head of the CDC, Tom Frieden, argued that it is the only way that we can control this pandemic in an op-ed you can read here. This will be a massive undertaking, but we can, and must do it. 

That is why yesterday I introduced H.R. 6560 The UNITE Act, which would provide the necessary testing and contact tracing nationwide by empowering AmeriCorps volunteers and FEMA staff to conduct testing, contact tracing, and medical support to slow this pandemic. As returned Peace Corps volunteers from Ethiopia, Patti and I have seen first hand how capable our volunteer networks are at stopping the spread of diseases like malaria abroad. Now that the virus has brought these volunteers home, it is time to utilize their skills to help heal our country. 

Specifically the bill would:

• Direct AmeriCorps and Peace Corps to utilize their nearly hundred thousand volunteers who are unable to serve their communities because of the virus to assist with testing and contact tracing 
• Direct AmeriCorps to increase recruitment and onboard a total of 500,000 volunteers to ensure adequate personnel for testing, tracing, and medical support 
• Doubles the stipend for volunteers to twice the federal poverty line to ensure they have the needed resources to conduct their work. 
• Gives hiring preference to veterans and anyone who is unemployed due to the pandemic
• Funds an additional 10,000 FEMA Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) to provide training and assistance to the volunteers. 
• Directs the Peace Corps to extend health benefits for evacuated Peace Corps volunteers for six months and to waive all non-medical application requirements for reenrollment of all volunteers wishing to return to the Peace Corps service after Agency operations resume.
• Requires the Peace Corps to report to Congress on the progress of the agency’s offer to reenroll each evacuated volunteer in the Peace Corps  and expeditiously return the roughly 7,300 volunteers abroad once the suspension of Peace Corps operations ends.

The tasks ahead are daunting, but we have the resources to do the work, we just need coordination. This bill provides the framework for this essential work, and I work tirelessly to make it law.    

All the best,