Congresswoman Barbara Lee Applauds Biden-Harris Administration’s COVID Relief Plan
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13) today released a statement on the announcement from the incoming Biden-Harris Administration outlining their emergency COVID relief package:
“From Day one, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris committed to the American people that they would tackle this virus and recover our economy from all the damage done by the inaction of the Trump administration. Today’s plan unveiled by the President-elect will do exactly that. It follows the lead of House and Senate Democrats who have proposed critical survival packages for the last eight months of this health and economic crisis.
“The Biden-Harris plan takes swift action to address the needs of struggling families. It was clearly understood that the last COVID-relief package passed in Congress was a survival package to get through the holiday. This push from the incoming administration should be welcome news to families desperately seeking relief.
“This package includes much of what Congressional Democrats have been fighting for, including an increase in direct payments to $2,000 for American families, support for vaccine distribution and testing, additional aid to small businesses, funding to safeguard state and local jobs, extension of unemployment benefits, help for renters and children in poor and middle-class families and more.
“Despite the groundbreaking fast track of the COVID vaccine thanks to the hard work of scientists, we are still falling behind in administering the vaccine, especially to communities of color. The Biden-Harris plan will address that issue head on by establishing mass vaccination locations, community vaccination locations, and mobile vaccination sites to reach medically underserved communities, an effort I championed alongside Senator Elizabeth Warren in Congress.
“This package scales up testing and tracing to crush the virus, safely reopen schools, protect vulnerable populations, and fund community health centers, which serve primarily communities of color. It funds culturally appropriate public health workers to serve their local communities to administer the vaccine, contact trace, and develop long term public health solutions to address public health disparities for communities of color, consistent with my COVID Community Care Act.
“Additionally, this proposal provides critical funding for states to deploy resources to at-risk congregate facilities, like long-term care facilities and prisons, which have disproportionate representation from communities of color.
“I’m looking forward to January 20th, so we can finally get to work on behalf of struggling families. This crisis has been so severely mismanaged by the current administration, and I’m grateful that the Biden-Harris is coming in with a plan on Day one. Congress will get right to work to put the President-elect’s plan into action and provide much needed relief to families across the nation.”