DeLauro Pumps $3T HEROES Act

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauo pitched a newly unveiled $3 trillion coronavirus-relief bill that contains a 15 percent increase for food stamps, $1 trillion in state and municipal aid, $100 billion in assistance for renters.

New Haven’s long-time Congressional representative unveiled those details — and made a political and moral argument for its swift passage — Tuesday afternoon during Mayor Justin Elicker’s daily coronavirus-related virtual press briefing, held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.

Elicker said that the city now has 2,083 confirmed positive Covid-19 cases and 82 related fatalities.

DeLauro called in to the presser just a few hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled House Democrats’ first pass at the next Covid-19 relief package: A roughly $3 trillion, 1,800-page proposed bill dubbed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or the HEROES Act.

According to The New York Times and the Washington Post, the proposed legislation contains $1 trillion in aid for state, local and tribal governments; another round of direct payments to American families, with some eligible to receive up to $6,000 per household; a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. Postal Service; an extension through January of the $600 weekly increase to unemployment insurance; a $200 billion ​“Heroes Fund” to provide hazard pay to essential workers; and $100 billion in Emergency Solutions Grants to help tenants pay rent.

DeLauo added on Monday that the bill also includes — and she plans to fight to preserve — a 15 percent increase in funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps; an increase in the minimum value of food stamp benefits from $16 to $30; and $75 billion towards coronavirus testing and contact tracing.

She said that the House of Representatives could vote on the proposed bill as early as Friday.

Click here for a one-page summary of the bill put together by House Appropriations Committee, here for a section-by-section summary, and here for the full text of the bill.

She was asked about how Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have signaled time and again in recent days that they are in no rush to pass another coronavirus-related relief bill. DeLauro said her pitch to McConnell is: ​“Listen to the people of this country. They are on their knees. They are desperate. What is our job? What is our moral responsibility? It is to respond.”

“I believe there are well-meaning Democrats and well-meaning Republicans” interested in working together on passing another relief bill, she said. The previous acts, such as the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed at the end of March, were the results of bipartisan negotiations and, ultimately, bipartisan support, she said.

“What people want us to do,” she reiterated, ​“they want government to engage to help them in their lives at this moment. The circumstances and the challenges are beyond them” and the federal government needs to act.

Testing Coming To Advanced Nursing

City Health Director Maritza Bond (pictured) said at the briefing that, later this week, the city and Greenwich-based doctor Steven Murphy plan to bring on-site coronavirus testing to Advanced Nursing, a nursing home in the Hill.

Murphy’s clinic already runs a walk-up testing site in the Day Street Park behind Amistad Elementary School in the Dwight neighborhood.

Bond said the free testing at Advanced Nursing will be for all of the home’s residents. She said it comes on the heels of Fair Haven Community Health Care conducting free testing at the Mary Wade Home in Fair Haven.

Elicker also said that, on Tuesday, the Blake Field drop-in center for homeless individuals saw 21 people come by the tent. He said that the Career High School isolation center for homeless individuals who have Covid-19 but do not require hospitalization currently has six people staying at the Legion Avenue school.