Kilmer Joins Federal Lawmakers Pushing for Strong Testing System in Washington State, Nationwide
Lawmakers: “As communities across the country need accurate information to make decisions about next steps, not having a coordinated evidence-based testing strategy is a recipe for disaster”
Press release issued 4/ 28/ 20
Tacoma, WA – Today, U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-06) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Representative Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08), and the Washington state Democratic Congressional Delegation in sending a letter to Vice President Mike Pence requesting that the Trump Administration devise a plan to significantly increase testing capabilities in Washington state and across the country and develop a strong national testing system. The letter follows the passage of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which invested $25 billion in COVID-19 testing and requires the federal government to develop a plan to scale up testing. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), as well as Representatives Adam Smith (WA-09), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Suzan K. DelBene (WA-01), Denny Heck (WA-10), and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) also signed-on to the letter.
“Public health officials in Washington state and across the country require a strong testing system to get the information they need to determine when our states and communities can begin eventual reductions in social distancing efforts without compromising public health,” the lawmakers wrote. “As communities across the country need accurate information to make decisions about next steps, not having a coordinated evidence-based testing strategy is a recipe for disaster.”
The lawmakers continued: “It is essential the federal government build and support a strong national testing system that resolves supply chain challenges, synthesizes epidemiological data at a national level, and provides states with support to increase testing capacity. Diseases do not respect borders and they do not respect state lines. For any state to effectively protect their citizens from COVID-19, every state must do so.”
Rep. Kilmer has previously called for the President to develop a federal strategy to dramatically increase the production and availability of testing for COVID-19. Last week, he signed on as an original cosponsor of the Immediate COVID Testing Procurement Act to leverage the Defense Production Act to procure all necessary components and supplies to conduct molecular and serological COVID-19 medical testing nationwide.
Senator Murray: Congress Must Ensure Immigrant Families Can Access Critical Services During Coronavirus Pandemic.
Press release issued 4/ 27/ 20(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), joined Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Representative Judy Chu (D-Calif.), along with 27 other Senators and 76 Members of the House of Representatives, in writing to members of Congressional leadership to call for an inclusive coronavirus relief package that ensures that urgently-needed coronavirus testing and medical care and relief benefits are accessible by all communities, regardless of limited English proficiency or immigration status. In their letter, Senator Murray and her colleagues highlighted the immigrant workers who are on the front lines of the coronavirus response as health care workers, farmworkers, grocery store workers, and other essential service providers.
“As Congress responds to the critical needs of our country during the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge you to ensure that the vital protections and economic lifelines provided in coronavirus relief legislation are accessible to all communities, regardless of immigration status or limited English proficiency,” the Members of Congress wrote. “COVID-19 has caused one of the greatest public health and economic crises our Nation has ever faced, and it requires a whole-of-society approach. A response that leaves out immigrants—many of whom are on the front lines in our fight against COVID-19—will be ineffective and detrimental to our efforts to stop this pandemic.”
The lawmakers continued: “We strongly urge you to build on the critical steps Congress has taken to protect families and workers in prior coronavirus relief packages by including the above-mentioned common sense measures in the upcoming relief legislation. We also ask that you provide robust funding for government agencies and community based-organizations to provide information about these coronavirus services in at least the languages described as most encountered in the 2016 FEMA Language Access Plan.”
Senator Murray has been focused on ensuring that nobody in Washington state or across the country is left behind in the response to COVID-19, especially undocumented individuals and other members of traditionally marginalized communities. Earlier this month, Senator Murray urged the Trump Administration to automatically extend work authorizations for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients and other impacted immigrants, and last week decried President Trump’s move to suspend immigration into the U.S. On March 13th and again on April 3rd Senator Murray questioned the Trump Administration on how they plan to address COVID-19 outbreaks in immigration facilities where they are detaining tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers. Senator Murray also spoke with educators and health care providers in Central Washington about how the current crisis threatens to exacerbate inequities in education for migrant students and families, and Senator Murray emphasized that she would be fighting for increased aid to address these inequities and other issues that immigrant communities face in future coronavirus legislation.
The letter can be found below:
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader McCarthy:
As Congress responds to the critical needs of our country during the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge you to ensure that the vital protections and economic lifelines provided in coronavirus relief legislation are accessible to all communities, regardless of immigration status or limited English proficiency. COVID-19 has caused one of the greatest public health and economic crises our Nation has ever faced, and it requires a whole-of-society approach. A response that leaves out immigrants—many of whom are on the front lines in our fight against COVID-19—will be ineffective and detrimental to our efforts to stop this pandemic.
As the COVID-19 outbreak is challenging our already-strained medical system, we must keep in mind that immigrants make up a disproportionate share of nurses, home health aides, and health care facility workers. Nearly 1.7 million immigrants work in the health care industry. There are 29,000 DACA recipients who are health care workers, while another 12,700 DACA recipients support the health care industry in crucial roles such as custodians and administrators. In addition, there are 11,600 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders who are health care workers. Therefore, it is vital that Congress ensures that immigrant workers, including these frontline workers who are risking their lives to save others, are able to maintain their work authorization and access key coronavirus relief measures.
Moreover, during a time when more than ninety percent of Americans, as of April 8, have been ordered to stay at home except to get essential services, we are relying on farmworkers, grocery store workers, and other essential service providers to meet our basic needs. Many of these indispensable workers are immigrants who face additional vulnerabilities such as low incomes and lack of health insurance coverage. As these workers endure the challenges of this pandemic to provide for our critical needs, we request that you extend the coronavirus cash assistance Congress provided in the CARES Act to include immigrant families who file taxes with an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN). In 2015 alone, 4.35 million people paid more than $13.7 billion in net taxes using an ITIN, according to the American Immigration Council. By excluding ITIN filers and their family members from access to cash payments, spouses and children in mixed-status immigrant families will be denied critical economic support, including 5.1 million children, the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens.
As Congress is taking bold steps to provide coverage of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccines, it must ensure that everyone has adequate access to these health care services, regardless of immigration status. Congress expanded COVID-19 testing through Medicaid for the uninsured in prior coronavirus relief legislation. We ask for additional clarity to ensure that all uninsured individuals, including immigrants, may qualify. We also ask that in any subsequent coronavirus relief legislation, you ensure that all low-income communities, including immigrants, can access Medicaid-funded COVID-19-related medical care such as treatment and vaccines, alongside coverage for testing.
We further request that you modify immigration policies that deter immigrant families from obtaining the medical care they need during this public health emergency, such as the public charge rule and immigration enforcement actions around sensitive locations. Despite U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ announcement that those obtaining COVID-19 testing or treatment will not be penalized under the public charge rule, the rule continues to have a widespread chilling effect. It has discouraged even those not subject to the rule, including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, from getting the health care and essential services they need due to fear and confusion about the rule’s impact. Suspending the public charge rule and immigration enforcement actions around sensitive locations, such as hospitals, COVID-19 testing sites, domestic violence shelters, food banks, and sites providing food and nutrition services for women, infants, and children, would help ensure that vulnerable populations are able to access critical coronavirus services.
Accordingly, we strongly urge you to build on the critical steps Congress has taken to protect families and workers in prior coronavirus relief packages by including the above-mentioned common sense measures in the upcoming relief legislation. We also ask that you provide robust funding for government agencies and community based-organizations to provide information about these coronavirus services in at least the languages described as most encountered in the 2016 FEMA Language Access Plan. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
WORLD NEWS HEADLINES
How can schools open up again safely? The UN has some new guidelines.
As countries grapple with severe disruptions to education caused by COVID-19, several UN agencies – as part of the Global Education Coalition – issued new guidelines on Thursday to help Governments make decisions on safely reopening schools for the world’s 1.3 billion students affected by ongoing closures.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062902
UN prepares for potentially devastating COVID-19 outbreak in conflict-ravaged northeast Nigeria.
In northeast Nigeria, where armed conflict has forced millions from their homes, the UN’s migration agency, IOM, is supporting the construction of quarantine shelters, as the region braces for an outbreak of COVID-19 which, it warns, would have ‘devastating consequences’ for those who have been displaced.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062892
World health experts will meet Thursday to assess COVID-19 pandemic
International health experts will convene on Thursday to evaluate the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and advise on updated recommendations, the head of the World Health.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062882
COVID-19: Act now to avert ‘hunger catastrophe’ for millions missing out on school meals.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062812
Coronavirus lockdown casts harsh light on our data and privacy online.
A third of all nations lack laws to protect their citizen’s online data and privacy, despite an 11 per cent uptick in the global adoption of data protection and privacy legislation since 2015, the United Nations’ trade, investment and development body (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062872
Nearly half of global workforce at risk as job losses increase due to COVID-19: UN labour agency.
Some 1.6 billion people employed in the informal economy – or nearly half the global workforce - could see their livelihoods destroyed due to the continued decline in working hours brought on by lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062792
Sudan: Coronavirus could be tipping point for ‘untold suffering’, Bachelet urges sanctions relief.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government and people of Sudan could experience “untold suffering” unless donors act fast to shore up a country still in transition, the top UN human rights official warned on Tuesday.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062782
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