Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I come to the floor to speak about the ongoing crisis of the novel coronavirus outbreak and to urge all of us to pass this supplemental as quickly as possible.

As of this morning, there are 163 confirmed cases in 17 States across the country, but no State has been more hard hit than the State of Washington.

We now have 39 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 230 people under public health monitoring. We have lost 10 of our citizens. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families who have lost loved ones, and there are still families who have loved ones in nursing homes and who are trying to make sure they get the appropriate care in this ongoing crisis.

I would also like to thank the workers who are on the frontlines of this healthcare crisis and are doing everything they can to help keep our citizens safe.

What is clear in this supplemental is that we need more resources for testing. The testing capabilities will help our communities understand the community transfer of this virus and what else we need to do to help stop its spread.

Some of the funding in this supplemental can be helpful for our smaller public labs to do more testing to help our public health officials respond to this crisis, and, as I urged yesterday, for the CDC and others to make it clear through our public health sites exactly how the public can go about getting access to testing.

This is so critical because I know there are people in the State of Washington who feel ill, who feel they might be subject to this coronavirus and aren't getting tested. We want to make sure the public clearly understands what their paths are for getting those tests, and we want to make sure that every lab--commercial and academic--in the United States is getting prepared to help us in the advent of the spread of this virus. Why? Because helping to identify these early cases is what will help us be successful in understanding these patterns and further the community separations that we need to do.

Why is this so important? Well, today in the State of Washington, they are taking major steps. Major employers are encouraging their employees, if possible, to work from home. These are companies like Microsoft and Facebook and Amazon--major employers.

We have 23 schools that have closed and 2 school districts that are entirely shut down. Why are they doing this? Because they are taking precautions for people who have been exposed to the coronavirus in those schools, and they are doing everything they can to make sure that they respond correctly.

In addition, King County has recommended that anyone over the age of 60, anyone with a preexisting medical condition, or anyone who is pregnant should avoid public places and gatherings as much as possible.

We are taking all these steps now because we are at the epicenter of this crisis, but I want people to know that there are other things that other States can be doing to learn from what we have done in Washington.

The fact is that we had a flu lab that actually was a collaboration among our academic and scientific and health communities to get people who thought they simply had the flu to also be tested, and we found cases of the coronavirus. That actually is something you have to set up and get permission for. I hope that every State will follow suit and set up such a cohort of people working together to share that information so that we can help prevent the spread.

Washington State will receive $11.5 million in funding to help the Department of Health respond to this crisis. I know the Vice President is visiting our Governor in Olympia, WA, today. I hope these funds in this bill we are passing today will increase access for public lab testing, help pay for isolation and quarantine, help pay for sanitizing in public areas, better track the areas and those who might come into contact with it, help labs that are trying to identify hot spots, and limit exposure.

As part of this package, Washington State will also be helped with reimbursements since the outbreak of this virus--and I can tell you that they are many--and to help us push through the protocols that would help us establish better responses.

Yesterday, we had a hearing in the Aviation Subcommittee to talk about what is needed for an aviation protocol. I know that some airlines in our State are doing everything possible to clean planes on every turn of the trip and to do deep cleaning. They are communicating--and we have encouraged them to communicate more--with their passengers exactly what they are doing to help with the mitigation of this virus. But that is not a substitute for the Department of Transportation, federally, and the CDC, collaboratively, to work in giving guidance to airlines on what standards they should be meeting to help mitigate the spread of this virus.

My colleagues and I are calling on them to do that, not simply to think of this as other agencies' responsibilities but to work collaboratively to get this done.

I want to thank the Appropriations Committee for getting this legislation to us today and all of our colleagues who have worked so quickly on making it happen. I can tell you that we need these funds; we need them now; and we need other States to heed the early testing that would have been helpful in our State and now may be helpful in yours.

Let's get as aggressive about testing as possible. Let's get aggressive about sharing information about the flu and tracking this virus. Let's get aggressive about trying to mitigate the impacts of this deadly disease.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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