Important news from this
week:
- I introduced
legislation that will help hospitals in Tennessee keep up with the
cost of providing care and help curb the trend of rural hospital
closures by setting an appropriate national minimum for the Medicare Area
Wage Index. Learn more about this legislation here.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services announced more CARES
Act funding – $35 million is headed to two Tennessee hospitals
that have treated a higher number of COVID-19 patients, Vanderbilt
University Medical Center ($24.8 million) and Sumner
Regional Medical Center ($10.6 million). Another $239 million is headed
to 289 rural hospitals, doctors, and clinics across the state.
- The Health
Resources and Services Administration announced that 29 community health centers across
Tennessee will receive an additional $9.4 million to expand COVID-19
testing. This funding is in addition to the $25 million these
community health centers received last month.
The best way to get Americans back to work and
back to school? All roads lead through
testing.
** Click here or on
the above image for VIDEO of my
opening remarks **
This week, the
Senate health committee I chair held a hearing to explore the best way
to get Americans back to work and back to school – increased
testing for COVID-19. Our country will soon be doing two million
diagnostic tests for COVID-19 a week, an impressive number. But to contain
the disease and give confidence to Americans that it is safe to leave
our homes, we will need tens of millions of tests, many more than our
current technologies can produce. Testing is necessary to identify
the small number of those with the disease and those exposed to it, so
they can be quarantined, instead of quarantining the whole country.
Testing will help Americans traumatized by daily reports of the virus
gain the confidence to go back to work and back to school. The end to
this crisis will be determined by three things: tests, treatments, and
vaccines. There is promising news that treatments and therapies will be
available this summer. The administration’s warp-speed pursuit
of a vaccine has a goal of 100 million doses by the fall and 300
million by January, a target much more ambitious than has ever been achieved
before. And the private sector is demonstrating a capacity to turn
out quickly tens of millions of serology tests — tests to
determine whether you have had the disease and have antibodies that might
create some immunity, at least for a time.
The president’s coronavirus task force reports that
states have submitted their goals for testing for May and the
administration is working to help supply media and swabs that states are not able
to obtain on the commercial market. That is impressive — but
not nearly enough. To test every nursing home, and every prison,
everyone in an operating room, and some entire classes and campuses and
factories, teams at sporting events, and to give those tests more than
once, we will need millions of more tests. This demand will only grow as
the country goes back to work and some 100,000 public schools and more
than 5,000 colleges plan to reopen this August.
Working with my
colleague from Missouri, Senator Roy Blunt, we included in the most
recent coronavirus legislation $1.5 billion for a competitive “shark tank” led by Dr.
Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, who testified at our
hearing this week. This initiative utilizes the capacities of
government itself, in coordination with the private sector, to pull out all
the stops and fast track new technologies designed to produce tens of
millions of tests by August. There is no safe path forward to combat the
novel coronavirus without adequate testing. Let us hope that out
of Dr. Collins’ shark tank will emerge at least one mighty
great white shark that will help us combat this disease.
I joined Fox
Business’ “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” this week to discuss
the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for development of new testing,
treatments and vaccines. You can watch that here.
I appreciate Governor
Bill Lee and Tennesseans across our state for their commitment to
expanding testing:
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.
#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. Here are some inspiring stories from this
week:
Jeremy Pruitt, head football coach for the
Tennessee Volunteers, made a surprise call-in to a lifelong Tennessee football fan who is
working on the frontlines fighting COVID-19 at Vanderbilt University
Medical Center to thank him for all of the work he is doing to
keep Tennessee communities safe.
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping
to speed up manufacturing of
life-saving equipment such as face shields, masks and test kits.
Government investment in basic science and advanced manufacturing at our
national laboratories is more important than ever.
Renfro Corp., a company that operates a manufacturing and
distribution center in Cleveland will be delivering 300,000 cloth face masks across the
state of Tennessee this week.
Clarifying Title IX law for schools across the
country
This
week, the U.S. Department of Education made final its rule clarifying Title IX – a federal
law protecting students from sex discrimination in education programs
or activities that receive federal financial assistance – so that
schools will more fully understand their roles and responsibilities
to better comply with the law. This final rule respects and supports
victims and preserves due process rights for both the victim and the
accused. For example, the rule ensures victims get the support they need
to change classes or dorms if they allege they have been sexually
assaulted or sexually harassed and the rule ensures the victim and the
accused get a fair hearing to resolve such allegations. I am glad
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undertook this rulemaking to help give more
certainty to victims, the accused, and college administrators. Under
the previous administration, a single official at the U.S. Department of
Education was issuing edicts, without the proper public input, to
6,000 colleges and universities about how to handle the complex and
sensitive problem of sexual assault on college campuses. To resolve this,
Secretary DeVos undertook the appropriate public rulemaking process
beginning in November 2018, including the opportunity for individuals,
groups and educational institutions to review and submit
comments.
Celebrating
Teacher Appreciation Day
This week, we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day. Many
Tennesseans who are helping their children learn from home appreciate
now, more than ever, the impact teachers have in the lives of their
students. I too had some great teachers, but Miss Lennis Tedford was the
best. From Miss Tedford, I learned more than music — she taught
me the discipline of Czerny and the metronome, the logic of Bach and
the clean joy of Mozart. So, a big thank you to teachers in
Tennessee—and across the country—who continue to find new, creative
ways to educate the next generation during this unprecedented time. You
are truly among the heroes of our country.
Below are a few news articles from this week I thought
you might want to read:
Knoxville News Sentinel: Op-Ed
by Lamar Alexander: Salary of TVA's CEO isn't too high. It's in the
bottom fourth for big utilities
WKRN-ABC Nashville
Channel 2: Senate ‘shark tank’ competition for coronavirus
testing hooks strong response
WSMV-NBC Nashville
Channel: Tennessee Senators introduce legislation to help rural
hospitals
Health Resources and Services Administration:
Tennessee Expanding Capacity for Coronavirus Testing
Awards
When you’re really stuck for an answer, ask your mother or
grandmother for advice.
#195 in Lamar Alexander’s Little Plaid
Book
