March 5, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 44 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H1508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CONGRESS MUST LIFT UP LOCAL HEALTH OFFICIALS

  (Mr. STANTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House fulfilled a critical 
duty. We passed an emergency funding bill to address the coronavirus to 
make sure that we give public health officials across America the tools 
to help keep Americans healthy.
  My State, Arizona, had the fifth confirmed case of COVID-19 and 
recently has another presumptive positive case.
  Since the first U.S. case was identified, State and local public 
health officials have had to carry the heavy burden of responding to 
this outbreak and preventing it from getting worse.
  Our local communities should not take this on alone. The spread of 
the deadly coronavirus demands a coordinated, comprehensive, 
government-wide response. In our emergency funding package, we 
specifically allocated almost $1 billion to go directly to State and 
local communities
  In Arizona, our public health officials and our Governor have 
indicated a need for upwards of $13 million to effectively meet the 
demand that the coronavirus outbreak merits. It is time we get our 
State and local agencies the support they need.
  Congress must always do all that we can to lift up our local health 
officials, and our funding bill does exactly that.

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