Important news
from this week:
- More help is on the way for Tennesseans in the fight against COVID-19.
This week, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law legislation to provide
an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program to
continue to make loans to small businesses, $75 billion for hospitals, and
$25 billion to strengthen COVID-19 testing.
-
With money made available in the CARES Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services is sending an additional $3.2 million to the Tennessee
Department of Health to help small, rural hospitals across Tennessee
as we continue the fight against COVID-19.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration announced Tennessee will receive $2 million in emergency
grants to strengthen access to treatments for substance use disorders and
serious mental illnesses during the COVID-19
pandemic.
- The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention announced that Tennessee will receive nearly $11.2 million in
additional funding to support public health department efforts to expand
capacity for COVID-19 testing, tracking, and contact tracing to contain
the disease.
- My thoughts continue
to be with those in East Tennessee who were impacted by severe
storms on April 12th and 13th. I – along with Senator Marsha
Blackburn, Representatives Chuck Fleischman, Scott DesJarlais and Phil
Roe – wrote a letter to President Trump urging him to quickly approve Governor
Bill Lee’s request for a major disaster declaration to help
the East Tennessee counties impacted by these severe storms. I was
pleased to see the president quickly approve this disaster
funding on Friday.
- And to those Middle Tennesseans affected by the
tornadoes on March 3rd: the deadline to apply for
Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance is May 4. If
you live in Davidson, Putnam or Wilson counties and have not applied
for assistance, you can click here to do so.
- The
U.S. Department of Education announced this week
that Tennessee’s state and local education agencies will receive a total of nearly
$260 million in emergency relief funds to support continued learning
for K-12 students whose educations have been disrupted by the COVID-19
global pandemic.
- On April 24, Gov.
Bill Lee issued the “Tennessee Pledge,” the state’s
guidance and best practices for Tennessee businesses in 89 of the
state’s 95 counties to keep employees and customers safe during the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Click here for more information.
How can the CARES Act can help
you?
I encourage Tennesseans to visit my website to learn more about
how you can take advantage of the federal assistance Congress passed and President Trump
signed into law that will keep paychecks coming, relieve
financial burdens and help contain COVID-19.
We are #TennesseeStrong
Over the last couple
of weeks, I have highlighted a few examples of how Tennesseans
are showing their “Volunteer spirit” by supporting
their communities and the medical professionals on the front
lines fighting to contain the spread of COVID-19. While
it’s impossible to capture all of the ways Tennesseans are
stepping up during this difficult time, here are just a few examples
to show how we are all #TennesseeStrong:
-
Jami Clark, a C-17 pilot, member of the Tennessee Air
National Guard and a FedEx Express Global Operations Control
specialist, joined an overseas mission with the U.S. Armed Forces transporting nearly one million
test swabs from Italy in under 80 hours.
-
A fourth-grade student at Linden Elementary School used his 3-D printer to
create “ear-savers” to help relieve the pressure around the
ears caused by wearing medical masks, which he donated to make those who
wear them more comfortable.
- A
seven-year-old boy with autism from Gallatin was upset no one would be
able to help him celebrate his birthday due to social distancing. But
when the Gallatin Police Department found out, they stepped in
and pulled
up with their lights on and sirens flashing – and they even
brought a present.
- A 21-year-old
Memphis native who recovered from COVID-19 decided she wanted to help
others do the same, so she went
through the process of donating her antibodies to help others
fight COVID-19.
- Future teachers
studying at the East Tennessee State University Clemmer College of
Education have volunteered to set up a free “Homework Hotline” to help local
public school students as they continue their courses remotely amid school
closures.
-
An Uber driver in Memphis raised $12,000 to donate and deliver
food to the Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown
Hospital.
- Tennessee Hills Distillery is producing roughly 500 gallons of
hand sanitizer a week — enough to fill more than 30,000
50-milliliter bottles.
- The
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation donated $50,000 to get free COVID-19 tests for the
uninsured in Chattanooga.
More help is on the way for Tennesseans in the fight against
COVID-19
This week,
Congress passed and
President Trump signed into law legislation that will provide an
additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program so that the
federal government can continue to make loans to small businesses,
which will help keep paychecks coming to thousands of workers in Tennessee
and across the country. Since the government has temporarily shut
down the economy because of this disease, the government must help those
who are hurt by it. According to the Small Business Administration
(SBA), over 34,000 Tennessee small businesses have been approved for more
than $6.5 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program, created by
the CARES Act – and this bill will allow that federal assistance
to continue for Tennesseans.
The legislation also includes $75 billion for hospitals and clinics to
help address the harm caused by COVID-19.
Congress pulled
out all the stops to help contain the disease and give Americans the
confidence to go back to work and back to school by providing an
additional $25 billion to strengthen COVID-19 testing, including over $1
billion to launch a new competitive "shark tank" to create new
technologies. There is no safe path forward to combat the novel coronavirus
without adequate testing. To contain COVID-19 and persuade Americans to
leave their homes and return to work and school, the United States will
need tens of millions of diagnostic tests. We should squeeze every test
possible out of current technologies, but we need tens of millions
more to really get a handle on how far and wide this disease has
spread.
If there’s a bold idea
out there that will work, this bill will help make sure the funding is
available to get these tests in the hands of health care providers
quickly. We also should improve serologic tests to determine
whether someone already has had the disease
and is likely immune and able to fight off the disease, at least for a short
amount of time. Click here to read the op-ed I wrote with Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
for The Washington Post about how to speed up
testing, using a “shark tank” for
government.
I also joined FOX
Business’ “After The Bell” this week to discuss the funding for
this competitive “shark tank.” You can watch my
interview here.
The importance of
learning U.S. history
This week, the “Nation’s Report Card” 2018 results were
released. These results were sobering. They reminded us that the worst scores for
American high school students often are not in science and math, but in
United States history. And, if our children do not learn United States
history, they will not grow up learning what it means to be an
American. America is an idea that has nothing to do with race, region and
background. It has to do instead with believing in shared
principles—such as liberty, equal opportunity and the rule of
law.
Below are a few news articles I
thought you might want to read:
Washington Post: Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt: We need more covid-19
tests. We propose a ‘shark tank’ to get us
there.
Chattanooga Times Free Press: U.S. Sens.
Alexander, Blunt: $1 billion 'Shark Tank' program needed to speed
COVID-19 test production
WZTV-Fox Nashville
Channel 17: Tennessee Congressional Delegation urges president to
approve tornado disaster declaration
Borrow good ideas and
acknowledge them.
#241 in Lamar Alexander’s Little Plaid
Book
