Latest from Lamar, Notes from the Senate Desk

*Important news from
this week: *

-
More help is on the way for Tennesseans in the
fight against COVID-19. This week, Congress passed [link 1] and
President Trump signed into law legislation to provide an additional $310
billion for the Paycheck Protection Program to continue to make loans to
small businesses, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion to
strengthen COVID-19 testing.

-
With money made available in the CARES Ac
[link 2]t [link 3], the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
is sending an additional $3.2 million to the Tennessee Department of
Health to help small, rural hospitals across Tennessee as we continue
the fight against COVID-19.

-
The Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration announced Tennessee will receive $2 million
in emergency grants to strengthen access to treatments for substance
use disorders and serious mental illnesses during the COVID-19
pandemic.

-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that
Tennessee will receive nearly $11.2 million in additional funding to
support public health department efforts to expand capacity for
COVID-19 testing, tracking, and contact tracing to contain the disease.

-

My thoughts continue to be with those in East Tennessee who were
impacted by severe storms on April 12th and 13th. I - along with Senator
Marsha Blackburn, Representatives Chuck Fleischman, Scott DesJarlais
and Phil Roe - wrote [link 4] a letter to President Trump urging him
to quickly approve Governor Bill Lee's request for a major disaster
declaration to help the East Tennessee counties impacted by these severe
storms. I was pleased to see the president quickly approve this
disaster funding on Friday.

-
And to those Middle Tennesseans affected
by the tornadoes on March 3rd: the deadline to apply for Federal
Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance is May 4. If you live in
Davidson, Putnam or Wilson counties and have not applied for
assistance, you can click here [link 5] to do so.

-
The U.S. Department of
Education announced this week that Tennessee's state and local
education agencies will receive a total of nearly $260 million in emergency
relief funds to support continued learning for K-12 students whose
educations have been disrupted by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

-
On
April 24, Gov. Bill Lee issued the "Tennessee Pledge," the state's
guidance and best practices for Tennessee businesses in 89 of the
state's 95 counties to keep employees and customers safe during the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic. Click here [link 6] for more information.




*How can the CARES Act can help you?*

I encourage Tennesseans to
visit my website [link 7] to learn more about how you can take advantage
of the federal assistance Congress passed [link 8] and President Trump
signed into law that will keep paychecks coming, relieve financial
burdens and help contain COVID-19.

*We are
#TennesseeStrong
*

Over the last couple of weeks, I have highlighted a few examples of how
Tennesseans are showing their "Volunteer spirit" by supporting their
communities and the medical professionals on the front lines fighting to
contain the spread of COVID-19.
While it's impossible to capture all
of the ways Tennesseans are stepping up during this difficult time,
here are just a few examples to show how we are all
#TennesseeStrong:

-
Jami Clark, a C-17 pilot, member of the Tennessee Air National
Guard and a FedEx Express Global Operations Control specialist, joined
an overseas mission with the U.S. Armed Forces transporting [link 9]
nearly one million test swabs from Italy in under 80 hours.

-
A
fourth-grade student at Linden Elementary School used [link 10] his 3-D
printer to create "ear-savers" to help relieve the pressure around the
ears caused by wearing medical masks, which he donated to make those
who wear them more comfortable.

-
A seven-year-old boy with
autism from Gallatin was upset no one would be able to help him celebrate
his birthday due to social distancing. But when the Gallatin Police
Department found out, they stepped in and pulled up [link 11] with their
lights on and sirens flashing - and they even brought a present.

-

A 21-year-old Memphis native who recovered from COVID-19 decided she
wanted to help others do the same, so she went through [link 12] the
process of donating her antibodies to help others fight COVID-19.


-
Future teachers studying at the East Tennessee State University
Clemmer College of Education have volunteered [link 13] to set up a free
"Homework Hotline" to help local public school students as they
continue their courses remotely amid school closures.

-
An Uber driver
in Memphis raised [link 14] $12,000 to donate and deliver food to the
Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital.

-
Tennessee Hills
Distillery is producing [link 15] roughly 500 gallons of hand sanitizer a
week -- enough to fill more than 30,000 50-milliliter bottles.

-

The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation donated [link 16]
$50,000 to get free COVID-19 tests for the uninsured in Chattanooga.


*More help is on the way for Tennesseans in the fight against
COVID-19*

This week, Congress passed [link 17] and President Trump signed
into law legislation that will provide an additional $310 billion for
the Paycheck Protection Program so that the federal government can
continue to make loans to small businesses, which will help keep
paychecks coming to thousands of workers in Tennessee and across the country.
Since the government has temporarily shut down the economy because of
this disease, the government must help those who are hurt by it.
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), over 34,000 Tennessee
small businesses have been approved for more than $6.5 billion from
the Paycheck Protection Program, created by the CARES Act - and this
bill will allow that federal assistance to continue for Tennesseans.


The legislation also includes $75 billion for hospitals and clinics
to help address the harm caused by COVID-19.

Congress pulled out
[link 18] all the stops to help contain the disease and give Americans
the confidence to go back to work and back to school by providing an
additional $25 billion to strengthen COVID-19 testing, including over $1
billion to launch a new competitive "shark tank" to create new
technologies. There is no safe path forward to combat the novel coronavirus
without adequate testing. To contain COVID-19 and persuade Americans to
leave their homes and return to work and school, the United States
will need tens of millions of diagnostic tests. We should squeeze every
test possible out of current technologies, but we need tens of
millions more to really get a handle on how far and wide this disease has
spread.

If there's a bold idea out there that will work, this bill
will help make sure the funding is available to get these tests in the
hands of health care providers quickly. We also should improve
serologic tests to determine whether someone already has had the disease and
is likely immune and able to fight off the disease, at least for a
short amount of time. Click here [link 19] to read the op-ed I wrote with
Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) for *The* *Washington Post* about how to
speed up testing, using a "shark tank" for government.

[image =
[link removed]]

*I
also joined FOX Business' "After The Bell" this week to discuss the
funding for this competitive "shark tank." You can watch my interview
**here* [link 20]*.*

*The importance of learning U.S. history
*

[image =
[link removed]]

This week, the "Nation's Report Card" 2018 results were
released. These results were sobering. They reminded [link 21] us that the
worst scores for American high school students often are not in
science and math, but in United States history. And, if our children do not
learn United States history, they will not grow up learning what it
means to be an American. America is an idea that has nothing to do with
race, region and background. It has to do instead with believing in
shared principles--such as liberty, equal opportunity and the rule of
law.

*Below are a few news articles I thought you might want to
read: *

*Washington Post: Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt: We need more
covid-19 tests. We propose a 'shark tank' to get us there. [link
22]*

*Chattanooga Times Free Press: U.S. Sens. Alexander, Blunt: $1
billion 'Shark Tank' program needed to speed COVID-19 test production
[link 23]*

*WZTV-Fox Nashville Channel 17: Tennessee Congressional
Delegation urges president to approve tornado disaster declaration* [link
24]



Borrow good ideas and acknowledge them.

*#241 in Lamar
Alexander's Little Plaid Book*




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