Political Quotes

“This emergency legislation makes key investments in programs that are critical to helping our hospitals and health providers continue to respond to COVID-19. It also improves our testing capacity, which will be critical to combating the pandemic and reopening out economy. This is not a perfect package, but no bipartisan agreement ever is. It does not include clearer metrics for the hospital funding that l think is necessary to ensuring that funding is distributed in a way that is fair and equitable, transparent, and responsive to the areas that are treating the highest number of COVID-19 patients. I also do not believe that the COVID-19 testing strategy is as strong as I would have liked. Right now, the Trump Administration has no clear plan, no clear benchmarks, and no clear timelines for setting up a national program that will reopen our economy. We must hold this Administration accountable for its abysmal response to testing, and I hope that we will be able to do more in the next package. Having said that, l want to acknowledge the good in this bill, because l do believe it will provide some additional relief and guidance that our states and local governments, territories, tribes, hospitals, and providers desperately need. We simply could not afford to wait, and thanks to our efforts we are providing some critical relief. First, we include another $75 billion for the CARES Provider Relief Fund, or the hospital fund.…”