The Senate Relief Bill Is A Good Next Step, There is Still Much More To Do

My focus today will be on the $484 billion spending bill that passed Senate, what it means, and what’s next. Here is a summary of the major pieces:

Part 1: $310 billion for payroll protection.

• Trump/McConnell’s initial ask was $250 billion.
• $60 billion additional set aside for smaller businesses that are unbanked — which was a big priority for Democrats.
• Also for businesses — $50 billion in Economic Emergency Disaster Loans (EIDL) and $10 billion in EIDL grants, and some money for the Small Business Administration to administer it.

This money needs to get to the right places! Hopefully those funds will help to do that. This needs visibility.

Part 2: Hospitals will receive $75 billion on top of the $100 billion in CARES. This should target rural from what I hear. But again there are all kinds of people with outstretched hands here.

Part 3: $25 billion for testing. If there’s no testing, small business money won’t mean anything because many won’t be able to open or stay open. Here’s the breakdown.

• $11 billion to states.
• $14 billion to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI who is leading the serology world), plus some money for research, development and deployment.

Even though this is $450 billion, one Senator described it to me as a mini-bill because they are aware of priorities that got left off.

• More state relief
• Money for contact tracing
• Health care coverage
• SNAP and other food relief
• Home and community based care
• Support for health care workers

So while there is much to do, they (perhaps correctly) traded off speed for complexity and size. As it is, just like the CARES Act, this bill got a lot better and was worth the week or so.

There were a few pieces that United States of Care pushed for which ended up in the bill that I’m particularly proud of. For example, requiring that states report on testing by race, age, ethnicity, gender, geographic region on rates of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

Other things we pushed for were money for health clinics and contact tracing. The context tracing part was only a start. More to come on that as it’s been a big part of the work this week. I also wanted hospitals to be required to share data on all Covid-19 patients as a condition of taking the money. I believe I failed at that.

The House will be voting on the Senate bill and immediately starting on the next bill. There’s a lot to fight for in that next bill.

Regarding testing, yesterday I published what needs to be fixed and who can fix it. This is about state vs. federal accountability. I had some strong views:

So let me tell you my opinion on how this bill addresses government accountability: I’m actually reasonably satisfied. If states execute the testing and delivery, and the federal government does all the things to get the supply lines and sourcing and central research done, that’s the right partnership. We need everyone accountable for their piece. No one can wash their hands.

Kudos to

for pushing for big breakthrough ideas to fund dramatic increases in testing.

This story is pulled from my daily COVID-19 updates on Twitter