In response to President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan COVID relief package moving through the House committee process, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room Director Zac Petkanas released the following statement:
“Despite Republicans’ partisan attempts at obstruction, Biden’s American Rescue Plan is one step closer to getting in the hands of families who desperately need it to weather this national emergency.
“This plan is essential to helping the country turn the page on the economic and public health catastrophe left by the Trump Administration. It offers direct stimulus to families struggling to make ends meet, includes housing assistance for people trying to make rent and mortgage payments, offers state and local communities aid to keep first-responders on the job, provides funding to get kids back in school safely, and builds up the vaccine distribution system and national testing strategy that will help us navigate our way to finally ending this pandemic.
“Unfortunately, instead of working with Biden, Republicans have only sought to water down and hack away at the plan. The reason is clear: they are trying to sabotage the recovery in an attempt to weaken the president politically. Democrats in Congress must continue to stand up to them to pass the plan that Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly support and urgently need.”
BACKGROUND: AS Coronavirus Remains a Crisis, Americans Need Help
- The United States Is Still Reporting More Than 80,000 New Infections In A Single Day. “Newly reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped 86,000 for Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and published early Tuesday.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/9/21]
- More Than 80,000 People Are Still Hospitalized With COVID-19 Across The Country.
“As of Monday, there were 80,055 people hospitalized across the country due to the disease… With 16,174 people in ICUs.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/9/21]
- Deaths Remain High As More Than A Thousand Fatalities Are Reported Each Day. “The country reported more than 1,400 new fatalities from Covid-19 [on Monday], pushing the total to more than 465,000, according to Johns Hopkins data.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/9/21]
- Evidence Suggests That People Can Be Reinfected By Contagious New Variants. “Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests.” [Associated Press, 2/8/21]
- A Highly Contagious Variant First Identified In Britain Is Now Spreading Rapidly Across The United States — With New Cases Doubling Every 10 Days. “A more contagious variant of the coronavirus first found in Britain is spreading rapidly in the United States, doubling roughly every 10 days, according to a new study… Dr. [Kristian] Andersen’s team estimated that the transmission rate of B.1.1.7 in the United States is 30 percent to 40 percent higher than that of more common variants, although those figures may rise as more data comes in, he said. The variant has already been implicated in surges in other countries, including Ireland, Portugal and Jordan.” [New York Times, 2/7/21]
- 780,000 More Americans Filed For Initial Unemployment Benefits Last Week, As Claims Remain At Record Highs. “Around 779,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, a slight easing of jobless claims after a winter surge that saw the number rise along with a spike in coronavirus cases. Economists were expecting a total of around 830,000. The data, released Thursday by the Department of Labor, represents the first full week of initial claims since President Joe Biden took office. Eleven months into the pandemic, the number remains at a level four times higher than the pre-pandemic average for jobless claims.” [NBC News, 2/4/21]