Letter to the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. Kevin McCarthy, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the Hon. Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader of the Senate, the Hon. Charles Schumer, Minority Leader of the Senate - Rep. Cook Urges House and Senate Leadership to Provide COVID-19 Relief for Smaller Counties

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer,

We appreciate your leadership and your bipartisan work to draft the next round of COVID-19 related legislation. The CARES Act provided much-needed aid to support our state and local governments with their COVID-19 response. This critical funding helped states and some local governments fund relief efforts and provided vital lifelines to our communities. Unfortunately, the CARES Act failed to ensure funding for counties with populations under 500,000, hampering their ability to provide front-line defense for over half of all Americans.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, it is imperative that we provide support to all local governments, regardless of size. Just like larger counties, our small and midsize counties are managing the impacts and enormous costs involved in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time experiencing significant losses in revenue. Every county government deserves some level of certain and definite assistance to prevent suspension of critical services and programs and thereby prevent additional deaths.

As you finalize the language for this next round of relief, we ask that any additional aid intended for local governments include direct, flexible funding specifically targeted to all counties that fall below the 500,000 population threshold and were excluded from direct funding in the CARES Act.

Our local governments are on the front lines of this crisis. We look forward to working with you to ensure that all of our counties receive the assistance they need to keep our communities safe and healthy.

Respectfully,