Hi John,

On Tuesday, I held a live telephone town hall with representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the U.S. Small Business Administration to discuss PA's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, as well as economic relief that's available now or coming soon. 

Thank you to everyone who joined and came with thoughtful questions and feedback. I know we need to do more to ensure everybody’s economic wellbeing and distribute the vaccines as soon as possible. There is more help on the way as we are finishing up the process of putting the American Rescue Plan into writing in the U.S House. It’s a proposal that will help us get back to normal faster with investments in coordinated vaccine distribution, in testing and in emergency response.

View a recap of the town hall or listen below to learn about the relief avaialble now and vaccination efforts underway. 

Among older Americans, hearing loss is common. With 1 in 3 American seniors experiencing the issue, chances are you or someone you know has trouble hearing. Regular checkups and hearing aids are simple solutions, but the problem is, they are really expensive -- often between $1,000 and $5,000 each -- and Medicare doesn't cover them.

So today, I reintroduced my HEAR Act with Rep. John Katko, a Republican colleague of mine from New York. It's a commonsense bill to improve Medicare by ensuring auditory exams and hearing aids are covered, so older Americans aren't faced with the unfair choice of going without these life-enhancing solutions, or paying several thousand dollars out of pocket, if they can even afford to.

We made good progress on this bill in the previous Congress; it passed as part of a larger bill, but like so many other good bills with Democratic and Republican support, it got stuck in Mitch McConnell's Senate. I'll be working this year to get this all the way across the finish line.

This week, I was so proud to announce that State Senator John Blake will be joining my office to spearhead economic development initiatives across the Eighth Congressional District. The Senator will be resigning his seat, but he will do so after serving Northeastern Pennsylvania honorably in Harrisburg for 10 years.

John is a lifelong Northeastern Pennsylvanian and a dedicated public servant with a fierce commitment to creating more opportunity for the people in our area.

At the start of this new Congress, I vowed to accelerate my efforts to direct more job-creating federal investments to Northeastern Pennsylvania. With his extensive economic development experience, John will play a big role in this mission.

Be safe & well,