Friend,

Americans are in trouble—they’re dealing with a deadly pandemic, their enhanced unemployment insurance is running out, and they’re wondering how they’re going to afford rent—yet Trump is using the crisis to try to force permanent cuts to Social Security. All while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking another vacation instead of passing a coronavirus relief bill.

We’ve released new ads calling out McConnell’s and the Trump administration’s repeated refusal to pass a coronavirus stimulus bill, leaving hundreds of millions of American families struggling to survive with the economy in free fall. Click here to watch and share the new ad.

Even though the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act in May, in the Senate it took months for McConnell to cobble together even a partisan COVID-19 bill, while virus raged on. And when it was time to sit down with the White House to negotiate a new COVID-19 package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were there, but McConnell was nowhere to be found. How is it that McConnell and Senate Republicans wasted no time in passing a bailout for corporations and the cruise ship industry, but they couldn’t come to the table to produce a plan that helps individual Americans who are in desperate need of relief?

Coronavirus cases continue to devastate states and cities in hot spots throughout the South and Southwest. The economy is in deep trouble. We have a looming eviction crisis, and there are lines for food banks across the country. We need billions in stimulus to repair the fiscal damage the virus has caused to state and local budgets and to pay for the personal protective equipment and safety guardrails that are essential to safely reopening schools and businesses.

Our community hospitals on the frontlines need funding to fight the pandemic. Our state and local services are in crisis and are counting on help from Washington, D.C. Pelosi and her colleagues passed a bill in the House that would help. In the Senate, Schumer has tried to negotiate in good faith, even saying he’ll meet Trump and McConnell right in the middle.

McConnell is hoping we don’t notice that the Senate is taking another vacation. He’s hoping that we don’t organize and mobilize to get a bill passed. That’s why, right now, we have to keep up the phone calls and the emails to our senators.

Watch and share out new ad now. Let’s keep the spotlight on McConnell so that he’ll feel pressure to pass a coronavirus relief bill.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President