OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Congress Must Lift Up Local Health Officials

Floor Speech

Date: March 5, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House fulfilled a critical duty. We passed an emergency funding bill to address the coronavirus to make sure that we give public health officials across America the tools to help keep Americans healthy.

My State, Arizona, had the fifth confirmed case of COVID-19 and recently has another presumptive positive case.

Since the first U.S. case was identified, State and local public health officials have had to carry the heavy burden of responding to this outbreak and preventing it from getting worse.

Our local communities should not take this on alone. The spread of the deadly coronavirus demands a coordinated, comprehensive, government-wide response. In our emergency funding package, we specifically allocated almost $1 billion to go directly to State and local communities

In Arizona, our public health officials and our Governor have indicated a need for upwards of $13 million to effectively meet the demand that the coronavirus outbreak merits. It is time we get our State and local agencies the support they need.

Congress must always do all that we can to lift up our local health officials, and our funding bill does exactly that.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward