Important news about the coronavirus – COVID
19:
I know the coronavirus – or COVID 19
– is at the forefront of the minds of all Tennesseans.
The United States is, generally speaking, prepared to deal with the spread of
the coronavirus, but everyone needs to take this very
seriously. The Tennessee Department of Health’s Coronavirus Public
Information Line (1-877-857-2945) is available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT
daily to answer your questions. If you are feeling ill, please call your
healthcare provider. And the best resource
for additional information is the Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Congress has
provided more than $8 billion to help states deal with the spread of
COVID19 – and just this week, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention announced the Tennessee Department of Health and local
health departments will receive more than $10 million to help fight the
coronavirus.
I’m encouraged by steps the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken to make testing
more easily available. Laboratory developed tests are a crucial part of our health care
infrastructure, and emergency use authorizations are the right thing to do
in order to better adapt to the threat as we learn more about
it.
President Trump was also right to restrict travel
from China in January. He was right to restrict travel from the European
Union this week because more of the new infections in the United
States are coming from travelers from the European
Union.
Now we have our own responsibilities – to work from home if
we can, avoid large, crowded places, and washing our hands regularly.
That’s the single, most important thing each of us can do to
help prevent the spread of the virus.
Our lives
might look a little different than we’re used to for a little while,
but I’m still confident the United States is prepared to stop
the spread of the coronavirus and limit its impact on all of
us.
Other important news from this
week:
- I introduced – along with a bipartisan group of senators –
legislation that would be the single biggest help to our great outdoors
in over half a century. With bipartisan support in Congress and from
President Trump, I hope this legislation is passed into law soon, so we
can secure the same opportunity for future generations to enjoy our
great outdoors as we have had.
- The
Older Americans Act is now headed to President Trump’s desk to
be signed into law. The legislation provides grants to states so they
can help seniors in our state and across the country live more
comfortably at home or ensure high-quality care at a nursing
home.
Protecting our
great outdoors so future generations can enjoy
them
This week, I was glad to help introduce the Great American Outdoors Act – the most important
conservation and outdoor recreation legislation in the last half
century – which
President Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell support. This
bipartisan bill will cut in half the $12 billion maintenance backlog in
our national parks, including $235 million in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. It will also reduce maintenance backlogs at our
national refuges and forests, like the Cherokee National Forest or the
Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge in West Tennessee. Congress should
quickly pass the Great American Outdoors Act so that we can begin to
rebuild our national parks, like the Smokies, and permanently fund the Land
and Water Conservation Fund, a recommendation of President
Reagan’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, which I chaired.
Tennesseans
continue to show our “volunteer
spirit”
This week, I spoke on
the Senate floor about my trip to Tennessee with President Trump to
survey damage caused by last week’s catastrophic storms. You can
watch my remarks here.
Last week, I traveled with President Trump, Governor Bill
Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congressman John Rose to visit with
some of the Tennesseans who were impacted by the tornadoes. The
communities affected are obviously very close-knit, and their reaction to
this storm was how can we help each other. The heroes were the first
responders – we met with many of them in Cookeville. The next heroes were the
volunteers – they turned out by the hundreds. These Tennesseans were
very grateful for the visit by President Trump. It was more than the
fact that this was the first time any president of the United States
had visited Cookeville. The president stayed there for a long time, and
he listened, and the folks there appreciated it very much. He and the
other federal officials announced a disaster declaration in, what
seemed to me to be record time, so, by the time we were there last Friday,
there already were federal emergency management personnel on the
ground in Tennessee, and there were multiple shelters already open. I
thank the president, other federal officials and all the volunteers who
want to help. We greatly appreciate what they’ve
done.
If you are in Davidson, Putnam and Wilson
counties and want information on the resources available, you may find more
information here: https://www.tn.gov/tema/get-involved/flooding-and-severe-weather-response.html
I appreciated
the Citizens of Fort Campbell taking the time to visit me this week.
What they do is very important, and I’m grateful for their
service.
Working to keep 150,000 more trucks off of
I-75
In the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, which I
chair, we held a
hearing this
week to review the president’s budget request for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, which funds construction of the Chickamauga Lock
in Chattanooga. Replacing Chickamauga Lock is important to all of
Tennessee. If Chickamauga Lock closes, it will throw 150,000 more trucks
onto I-75. With the money now appropriated by Congress and signed into
law by the president, we have the necessary funding to complete the
new Chickamauga chamber lock contract. This is a project that was
authorized in 2003, and because of steady funding for six consecutive years,
barges and small boats should be able to use the new lock as early as
2023. But to finish the job, work remains to be done, which means
constructing the approach walls and tearing down the old lock, and we
need to make sure we have adequate funding for that. I will work with my
Senate colleagues to help ensure we continue to give the Corps the
resources they need.
Even on the busiest
weeks, Tennessee Tuesday is a priority for me and Senator Marsha
Blackburn. We enjoy welcoming Tennesseans to our nation’s capital. Sign
up here if you’re in Washington
on a Tuesday and come by and see us.