July 11, 2020
Dear Friends,
Each new day brings news of devastating health and economic impacts of COVID-19 across our nation. Despite the daily records in new cases we are setting as a nation, this Administration continues to push more of the same deadly and unscientific denials while doing little to mitigate the harms and hardships caused by their inaction in this crisis: We have now crossed the heartbreaking threshold of more than 130,000 American lives lost to COVID-19, with a low estimate of more than 3 million infected.
- Daily numbers of new cases now exceed 60,000—higher even than when the pandemic was at its peak in April and May.
- Tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs or faced pay cuts. We are now at 16 weeks in a row of unemployment claims above 1 million, with critical economic safety nets set to expire soon.
- 1.5 million state and local government employees laid off over the last few months.
Even with millions of Americans exposed so far, the vast majority of our population—some 90 percent—still have not experienced illness and still do not have antibodies. In other words, we have a long road ahead and it’s not at all too late for us to right the ship and save a lot of lives in the process.
These painful numbers lay bare the importance of facing this crisis with science and implementing sound testing and tracing without any further delay so that we do not needlessly put countless Americans at risk of exposure and suffer an even greater economic backlash. My colleagues and in the House of Representatives have repeatedly approved funding for widespread testing and tracing, but the Senate and White House seem to have no interest in preventing the worst outcomes of this pandemic on our communities. In fact—while opposing his own advisors and public health professionals—President Trump continues to claim victory against COVID-19 and push for America to “reopen” regardless of whether anyone believes this can be done safely.
Remember: ramping up our economy without a plan to control the virus will only worsen the harms it causes and add to the vast time, resources and personal sacrifice it will cost us to recover.
This week, the President blasted CDC guidance issued by officials in his own administration that recognized that reopening schools will be “very tough and expensive.” He has even threatened to cut funding to schools that don’t fully reopen this fall. Additionally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued changes to visas that would force international students who take entirely online courses to transfer schools or leave the country. This cruel and counterproductive action does nothing to help our students, undermines the ability of our universities to make the best decisions for themselves, and risks the education of all students for no purpose other than to put undue pressure on colleges and universities to reopen in person unnecessarily. If they cave to this heartless and senseless pressure, they will be jeopardizing the health and safety of every single student and faculty member.
My colleagues and I in both the House and Senate have joined together to send several letters holding ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accountable for this erroneous policy, and urging the agencies to withdraw this new directive that will hurt our students, our universities, our economy and our nation.
Ultimately we do need our schools to reopen. We cannot move forward in addressing this pandemic and fully ramping up our economy without them. However, reopening schools prematurely, throwing our teachers and administrators into the jaws of this still-mysterious disease, without the investment needed to make sure it is done safety and scientifically, will mean extraordinary costs to the health and safety of our students and educators, and to everyone they come into contact with at the end of each school day.
We simply will not overcome this virus and make a strong economic recovery until we commit to following the guide of science and establishing widespread testing and tracing that supports our own individual mask wearing and social distancing.
As we push for political leaders to do the right and responsible thing, we must not forget that America’s local communities are fast approaching the brink of financial failure and will need our help to weather this storm. Failure to do so will mean vast and painful cuts at fire departments, schools, and other municipal services that have helped us keep a semblance of normal life during this crisis.
I worked with my colleagues in the House to advance the Heroes Act so we can deliver that urgently needed support. This urgently needed crisis-response legislation would, among other things, put money in the pockets of millions of Americans and ensure their continued financial security through unemployment insurance and housing protections, deliver a paycheck boost for our frontline workers, and make substantial targeted investments in our schools and hospitals, including an estimated $100 million added every year to our Capital Region economy under a leveling of the Medicare Wage Index that I fought successfully to get into the final bill.
In total, the bill would deliver more than $1.3 billion in direct crisis-response aid to New York’s Capital Region and a combined $49.5 billion to New York State overall.
This coming Wednesday will mark two months since we passed the Heroes Act in the House. That’s almost two months that our families—along with our emergency responders, firefighters, transit workers, teachers and other vital personnel supporting us through this crisis—have gone without the assistance or health and financial security they need.
We cannot expect our communities to weather this storm without our help. As we invest in the proven science-driven solutions that will help us overcome this pandemic, I will keep fighting to provide critically-needed support for our Capital Region and beyond.
Thank you for your continued strength and solidarity as we manage this crisis.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, my office and I have worked to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations on any and all COVID-19 related topics. With that in mind, here are a few recent developments that may be of interest to you:
- Taxes must be paid by July 15th. However, Exceptions apply for military personnel serving overseas. If you’d like to file an extension, you must do so by July 15th. This gives you until October 15th to file your tax return. To do so, you must one of the following:
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