Rob Portman: “I am also here to talk today about the work that is being done to help my home State of Ohio to get through this…”

“I am also here to talk today about the work that is being done to help my home State of Ohio to get through this coronavirus. It is a crisis in so many ways. It is a healthcare crisis, but it has also become an economic crisis and a family crisis. It is affecting everybody in ways that are truly heartbreaking for me to see in so many instances. I have talked to people who have been unemployed for the first time in their lives and have never had access to the unemployment insurance office. They have been fortunate. And now they have to. I have talked to people who started a small business and took a big risk to do that. They have five or six employees--it is a family-owned business--and they have been through the thick and thin over the years, but this one has really knocked them out. They have no income coming because they are in one of these businesses that by government order were shut down and cannot continue to serve the customers. I have talked to hospitals in a rural area of our State that cannot continue to operate. They have about a week left of cash reserves. Luckily, they are going to get some of this funding that Congress just provided with regard to the phase 3.5, as we are calling it, legislation of the CARES Act. But they are really hurting. They have had to lay off more than half of their hospital staff. They can't do elective surgery. They can't have the normal work they are used to because people aren't coming in to see the doctor.…”