Important news from this week:
- On Thursday, May
7, the U.S. Senate health committee I chair will hold a hearing with Dr.
Francis Collins at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Dr. Gary
Disbrow at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
(BARDA). This hearing will be an opportunity for senators to
learn how NIH is working to create new technologies to produce the tens
of millions of diagnostic tests we will need to contain
COVID-19.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Tennessee hospitals and
clinics will receive an additional $179 million in funding made
available through the CARES
Act.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that
Tennessee will receive nearly $12 million – made
available by the CARES Act – for 79 public housing
authorities across the state to help fight COVID-19.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
announced more than $2 million is headed to local television and radio
stations across Tennessee to help maintain programming
services.
- On April 30th, the U.S.
Department of Education announced an additional $39.6 million for 71
colleges and universities in Tennessee to help ensure learning continues
during the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, including $30.4 million for
Tennessee’s six Historically Black Colleges and Universities,
and 39 other institutions. This funding is made available by
the CARES Act and is in addition to the $237.1 million the Department
provided to 127 Tennessee colleges and universities on April
21.
- The Mechanical Licensing
Agency – which was created by the Music Modernization Act that I helped write and
President Trump signed into law to ensure songwriters across America are
paid a fair market value for their work – has announced its
headquarters will be in Nashville. Welcome to Music City!
Attention to Middle
Tennesseans affected by the tornadoes on March
3rd
The deadline to apply for
Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance is this
Monday, May 4. If you live in Davidson, Putnam or Wilson
counties and have not applied for assistance, you can click here to do so.
How can the CARES Act can help
you?
I encourage Tennesseans to visit my website to learn more
about how you can take advantage of the federal assistance
Congress passed and President Trump
signed into law that will keep paychecks coming, relieve
financial burdens and help contain COVID-19.
Accelerating the development of COVID-19 testing
technologies
This
week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it has begun implementing a
new initiative to accelerate the development of COVID-19 testing
technologies. I worked with Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri to include
this “shark-tank”-like effort in the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement
Act that President Trump signed into law last week.
This provided over $1 billion for a competitive
“shark tank,” led by Dr. Francis Collins, one of the nation’s
leading scientists, and will help lead the effort
to develop new technologies to produce the tens of millions of
diagnostic tests we will need to contain this virus and restart the economy.
In such a bold effort there will be failures, but all we need are a
few successes to help get our country back work and back
to school.
I wrote an op-ed
in the Washington Post with Senator Blunt on the
need to advance other research, give money to states to buy testing
equipment, improve data reporting, conduct tests and operate testing
centers, and implement contact tracing to identify those who’ve
come in contact with sick people so they, too, can quarantine
themselves. You can read that
here.
#TennesseeStrong
– Tennesseans fighting back against
COVID-19
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:
- East Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory is using its exceptional brainpower and advanced manufacturing
expertise to help create the resources needed to rapidly produce
COVID-19 test kits across the country, and President Trump thanked them for their efforts
earlier this week.
- Since
wearing face masks have become a common practice by many Americans,
particularly with health care workers, Chattanooga-based Kenco is using its 3-D printing
capabilities to make face masks more comfortable for those who wear
them.
- Vanderbilt’s
Blair School of Music is using video conferencing apps over the internet
to play music for older Nashvillians during this pandemic. One 93-year
old Nashville resident who received one of these private
concerts said, “I don’t care
about computers and all that jazz, but when I realized that music was
being played just for me, it was amazement.”
- An 11-year-old girl from Gallatin with a
passion for helping others has dedicated her time and her efforts to producing face masks
for those who need them.
- A group of Nashville pilots have volunteered to change their flight routes and deliver
COVID-19 tests to a Pathgroup Lab in Nashville. This is important
work, as ground transportation can take days. Executive Vice President of
Sales for Pathgroup Labs, Steve Young, said, “The quicker that
we can get these specimens and turn the results around, the quicker
they can start treating the patients of a healthcare provider can get
back to work.”
- Hundreds of medical and nursing students at the University of Tennessee
Health Science Center have volunteered their time to work on the frontlines at COVID-19 test
sites.
- Volunteers
with MyRide Kingsport are taking the initiative to help older members of their community who
are at higher risk of COVID-19 by delivering food, medicine and other
essential items for them.
-
Second Harvest Food Bank and Tennessee State University have
set up a drive-through food distribution facility to provide relief to hundreds of
residents in the Nashville metro area.
Below are a few news articles from this week I thought you
might want to read:
Elk Valley
Times: Lamar Alexander: Staying ‘Tennessee
strong’
The Hill: NIH launches
'Shark Tank'-style contest to develop new testing
technologies
WVLT-CBS Knoxville Channel
8: Sen. Alexander talks testing technology as Tennessee
reopens
Finish what you
start, and don’t start more than you can do
well.
#177 in Lamar
Alexander’s Little Plaid Book
