Barbara Lee: “I thank Congresswoman Garcia very much for her input in helping to write the COVID Community Care Act. Mr. Speaker, I…”

“I thank Congresswoman Garcia very much for her input in helping to write the COVID Community Care Act. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), my good friend, the chair of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee. Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me this evening and being here with other colleagues because we know, and we have said over and over again, that we face public health and economic crises unlike any that our country has seen in a generation. More than 245,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Tens of millions are out of work. And we know how communities of color have suffered acutely and disproportionately. While we have known about some of these issues in the past, about the inequities in our healthcare system, in our economy, this virus has exposed and shone a light on the depths of the injustices and inequities that exist for communities of color. While we need to fight the virus, we need to fight the virus of injustice. In my home State of Connecticut, as of last Thursday, Black people accounted for more than 14.5 percent of Connecticut's COVID-related deaths when they are just 12 percent of the population. Mr. Speaker, 18 percent of COVID cases are Hispanic, outpacing the 17 percent they make up of our State's population.…”