On the recordFebruary 4, 2021
I joined some of my colleagues at the White House yesterday to talk with President Biden and Vice President Harris about what it will take to make real progress against the pandemic and to make a real difference in people's lives. Our country is in the middle, as we know, of a once-in-a-generation crisis, and this is our opportunity to deliver for them. Yesterday, I came to the floor to talk about the need for direct stimulus checks and for rental assistance and tax cuts for working families and to use the Defense Production Act to get more people vaccinated more quickly. Today, I am here to talk about the critical help in this plan, the Biden plan, for our Nation's veterans and their families. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 9,300 veterans have died of COVID-19. Right now, at least 9,000 veterans are sick with this virus. Our plan would ensure that frontline VA employees would have the protective equipment they need to continue to do their jobs every day as they care for our veterans. It would help us get more veterans and VA workers vaccinated. We know that nothing is more critical now than getting vaccines into people's arms, especially as we face new, more contagious variants. So far, the VA has provided some 800,000 initial doses of vaccines to veterans and employees. Additional funding would ramp up both vaccine distribution and COVID treatments for those who answer the call to service.…





