Joseph P. Kennedy III

We know that Black and brown people across this country are more than twice as likely to die as those who are white from this virus...

We have not only failed lower income and Black and Brown communities with regards to this virus, we failed them long before anybody uttered the word coronavirus or COVID-19 or knew what social distancing was.

We have failed by letting our public transit options crumble and our public housing deteriorate.

If we are going to be sure that history does not repeat itself, which it will if we do not act, wealthier and White communities won't see those shortages or long waits, but others certainly will.

establishing more residency programs and slots in historically underserved areas is one key step to addressing some of the health inequities that currently plague our system?

Massachusetts has been hit extremely hard by this virus. We have had over 100,000 people infected and over 7,500 deaths.

When you talk about these infection rates, they are also a reflection of access to testing that are in and of itself subject to these disparities and structural inequities that we have been talking about today.

I have introduced legislation to help increase providers in these historically underserved communities of color.

Do you know--walk me through the reasons that account for that.

I have never seen lines so long for food in my entire life than I did in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

I think this is an enormous opportunity to revitalize parts of our country to strengthen union labor and to get good jobs that provide a pathway.

I think we can all agree about robust environmental reviews are important.

We must focus on policy that support the clean energy industry, and provide opportunity for all communities and workers of different backgrounds.

COVID didn't create the racial disparities that we see today. It shined a bright light and exposed the underlying inequities of our system that many have known to be true for a very long time.

Last month, I sent a letter to President Trump calling for the appointment of an environmental justice expert to the Coronavirus Task Force and calling for all future actions to prioritize communities that are most at risk.

the last thing we should include in our recovery efforts is a bailout for big fossil fuel companies.

We missed early warning signs and forgot important pages from our pandemic playbook.

Are you aware the Trump administration's budget proposal released in February of 2020 called for a cut to CDC by nearly $700 million?

We are here today to ask that Congress provide robust funding for LSC, because we can't afford not to.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Aderholt, for convening this hearing.

It is absolutely vital that everyone with substance use disorder, the potential for it and mental illness, get the care they need as soon as possible.

As long as there are Americans out there without healthcare coverage or who are underinsured... we will not be able to overcome an opioid epidemic.

Yet, this administration will be arguing before the Supreme Court in just a few months that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down.

Do you know, roughly, how much Medicaid pays annually for that treatment? Well, about $7 billion or so.

So, Ms. Brandt, are you familiar with the statistics showing that the percentage of people hospitalized with a substance use disorder who did not have health insurance dropped from 20 percent to just five percent in states that expanded…