Congressional Hispanic Caucus Discusses Covid-19 Disparities

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Espaillat for organizing this Special Order hour.

Madam Speaker, we are more than 8 months into the COVID pandemic, and I know that each and every one of us has been impacted.

For months, we sounded the alarm on the pandemic's disproportionate impact on Latinos, minority communities, and especially frontline workers.

It is no coincidence that the top five most impacted zip codes in Illinois are in my district. And as many as one in 15 Chicagoans has COVID-19, with a vast majority being either Latino or Black.

But this is a different moment. We are heading into a dark winter and working families cannot wait for Congress to act.

Unless we take immediate action, more will die. The sick are splitting pills to pay rent. Diabetics are rationing insulin to save money. People are going hungry or doubling up in homes to keep off the street.

This falls on us. Congress. The White House.

How can I continue to go back home and explain to my constituents again why Congress can't pass relief for families?

We expect everyone to do their part. Stay home or continue working the frontlines. It is way past time that we do ours.

$1,200 is all people were given to get through the lockdown, and many of my immigrant constituents didn't even get that. Three, five, four. U.S. citizen-born children could not get their $500 checks. U.S. citizen spouses could not get their $1,200 checks because they may be married to someone who doesn't have a Social Security number yet.

We call them essential workers, but really, they are expendable as far as Donald Trump and the Republican Senate are concerned. We call them essential, but they are expendable in the eyes of those who hold the keys to relief.

What do I tell the exhausted doctors and nurses working days at a time at hospitals quickly reaching capacity? How do I explain our inaction to the mother who had to wait 4 hours just to get tested? Or patients trying to figure out how they are paying next month's rent? Or children who won't have parents sitting at the table this Thanksgiving?

Most of my constituents don't have the luxury of working from home. They are essential workers. They are on the front lines making sure we keep this country running.

Workers are having to make tough choices these days. Go to work with fears of contracting or spreading COVID-19, or stay home and risk losing a job, health insurance, or their home.

All they are asking for is help to get by. People are afraid, frustrated, and worried. I am pissed off, and you should be, too.

What are we doing here? What the heck is the Senate doing sitting around confirming judges while 246,000 families grieve?

Yes, we are all exhausted.

But months of willful neglect and recklessness from the White House, most Republican Governors and the Senate is devastating the Latino community and our entire country and economy.

We have got to get a handle on this virus and our inaction--rather than the failure for the Senate or the White House to act--will only lead to more death and suffering.

We must pass the Heroes Act now. Working people cannot wait until January. Lives are literally depending on it.

I plead with all decision makers to come to their senses to save people's lives and to help restore our economy by doing the right thing. Passing COVID relief legislation that families, small businesses, and communities are dying, literally dying, to receive.

Now is the time for that action, before it gets colder and darker in America. We have the solution and the power to act and bring relief to all of those grieving and hungry and sick families if we act today.

It is time for action and no more words. It is time to rise to the occasion and restore our people and our economy.

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