Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me acknowledge that people are dying. That sometime in the future, we may have one-sixth of the number of people…”

“Let me acknowledge that people are dying. That sometime in the future, we may have one-sixth of the number of people that died in World War II in the battles on behalf of the United States. I rise because I support this legislation because it has universal testing for COVID-19. It is a matter of life and death. And I call upon using this $25 billion for testing nursing homes and all essential workers. They must be assured that they are safe. I join with the Congressional Black Caucus to make sure that we have concentrated voluntary testing in areas where there have been high deaths, contact tracing to identify the people, which has been included, antibody tests, working with our communities and faith-based. And, yes, The Nickel in the Fifth Ward, where Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan work; that is a restaurant. I want them to be part of those who will get now the new dollars, the $60 billion that is going to help the very, very small. And I want to stand in the way of the Ruth's Chris and the Shake Shacks, the large corporations, to make sure that they understand that we are sharing with each other. So small businesses now with minority banks and CDFIs can do this. Finally, our hospitals that have been on the front lines. They need to be reimbursed and those who are Medicare focused, not just Medicaid focused, not just Medicare focused. And, yes, I want hero pay for our transit workers and hero pay for our professionals.…”