Jimmy Panetta: “At this time--just like I said last week, and I say it again this week--the COVID-19 pandemic will get worse before it…”

“At this time--just like I said last week, and I say it again this week--the COVID-19 pandemic will get worse before it gets better. It will get worse for our public health. It will get worse for our financial health. That is why I rise in support of the CARES Act. With these shelter- in-place orders, we are continuing to try to flatten the corona curve. But when we do that, figuratively, we are putting our economy in a medically induced coma, a step that, as we have seen this week, has led to one of the worst employment rates in our history. That is why we need one of the biggest stimulus packages in our history. The CARES Act will expand unemployment insurance for restaurant, retail, and hotel workers on the central coast of California. It will assist my specialty crop farmers in the salad and berry bowls of the world. It will provide small businesses across this country with the loans necessary to survive. With this bruising pandemic, we are asking our constituents to do something that is not normal: to stand down, to stay inside, to separate from one another. They are relying on us to do the right thing: to step up and to support the CARES Act.”