Cory Booker: “this past week, we have seen that the spread of COVID-19 has really become a crisis not just for our Nation but a crisis…”

“this past week, we have seen that the spread of COVID-19 has really become a crisis not just for our Nation but a crisis for every American. Today, millions of Americans are asking themselves how they will endure this crisis, how long will the crisis last, how will it affect their families, their communities, and their Nation as a whole. We have many people who are now trying to do the dollars-and-cents of this crisis, literally sitting down to try to calculate how many weeks they can stretch the last 2 weeks of pay. We see people who have been furloughed, had their hours reduced, been laid off. We have seen that small businesses--from the mom-and-pop pizza joints, to small interior design shops, to barber shops--are all trying to determine how they can keep themselves afloat when their doors are closed and how they can deal with their fixed costs. I have been on the phone with so many employers in my own State who have spoken to me about the challenges they have trying to continue to cover the health insurance of their employees even with the fact that no revenue is being brought in by their businesses. Over and over again, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, our sports arenas, hotels--all of them have been emptied, and millions of workers have been let go and had their hours slashed. On top of that, schools across this country, from colleges to kindergartens, have been closed, and millions of families are now scrambling to try to find childcare.…”