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60 Local Ohio Faith Leaders Call on Congress for Immediate
Action on COVID Relief
Last week, Black Women Rising and 60 local Ohio faith
leaders released
a
joint letter
spotlighting the challenges people across the state are
experiencing during the unprecedented pandemic. COVID-19
continues to disproportionately infect and impact Black
Americans, including Black Ohioans, who make up nearly 20
percent of the state’s COVID-19 casualties even though Black
people make up only 14 percent of Ohio’s population.
With more than 140,000 COVID-19 cases in the Buckeye state
and key provisions of the last relief package expiring,
Congressional action is urgently needed to address the
continued impact of the pandemic on women, families, and
business. There has been no action on COVID relief since May
15, when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $3
trillion
HEROES Act
that provides more support for
people who lost jobs, income, health care and facing
hardship because of the pandemic. Unfortunately, Senate
Leader McConnell refused to take up the package, opting
instead to shut down negotiations.
Since then, over 111,000 Americans have died from COVID.
Ohio is facing a $2.3 billion state budget shortfall that
will force more cuts in jobs and services unless federal
lawmakers pass a new relief package. The joint letter calls
on elected officials to negotiate a package that increases
health care access through Medicaid, prioritizes workers
support and protections from COVID and provides funding for
strapped state and local governments struggling with COVID
response.
"The COVID pandemic is impacting everyone, but it's not
impacting us all equally. All the data shows that women are
struggling with the aftermath of the epidemic more than men
and that Black women, who already faced the greatest barrier
even before COVID, are the most impacted by the pandemic.”
said Reverend Marcia Dinkins, Black Women Rising Executive
Director.
“Today, clergy in Ohio are sending a letter to remind
lawmakers that it's wrong to put their own political
interests ahead of providing the basic support that their
constituents need--health care, food assistance, child care,
rent assistance and unemployment income--to make it through
this crisis and take care of their families. This relief
debate is about values: billionaires are making profit from
the pandemic, while women and their families are going
without because of political gridlock in Congress.”
“State and local governments are bearing the direct brunt of
increased needs and shrinking revenues during this time. The
longer the U.S. Senate refuses to negotiate on a significant
package that provides for basic needs, the more likely it is
that Ohioans will see deeper cuts to city services and jobs
which will exacerbate the already stretched economy,
increase the number of unemployed Ohioans, and put people at
risk for hunger and homelessness. It's up to all of us to
speak up and insist on federal action," said Representative
Paula Hicks-Hudson of District 44.
“Faith and clergy leaders have a critical role to play in
COVID relief and recovery efforts both in helping lawmakers
understand the continued devastating impact of the disease
as well as ministering to impacted people. As faith leaders,
we must insist that our elected representatives take up the
moral imperative to ensure that people are in ‘good health,’
and we must hold accountable those who have the power to
provide relief and recovery for Ohioans but choose inaction
over doing the right thing," said Rev. James H. Willis, Sr.
of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.
The 60 signatories are calling for an end to Congressional
gridlock that has exacerbated the harm caused by the
pandemic and immediate action to help the millions of people
bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s economic and health
crises. The full letter follows
Dear Senators and Representatives,
Thank you for all you and your colleagues have done in
recent weeks to respond to the new COVID-19 pandemic
sweeping across our nation. Thanks to early action from
Ohio’s state leaders as well as federal action on important
relief legislation many people have gotten much needed help
during this early stage of the crisis, even as struggles and
challenges continue to mount on many fronts.
It’s already clear that this pandemic is far from over and
that it will have far-reaching consequences on American
life. Much more action is needed to address the pandemic’s
many adverse impacts on Ohio, particularly low income
people, people of color, seniors, people with disabilities
and others who face the greatest risks and are least
equipped to respond or withstand the crisis.
As clergy and faith leaders who minister to many such people
in our congregations and communities, we see first hand the
devastating effects of the pandemic on these individuals and
their families. We also see the growing need for basic
services like healthcare, housing, food assistance and
worker supports and protections particularly among African
Americans and minority communities that are
disproportionately impacted, as data shows.
We’re writing to request that Congress take increased
immediate action to ramp up relief efforts, including
committing sufficient resources for longer-term recovery so
that families, states and our nation do not suffer long-term
harm from the disease. In that spirit, we urge lawmakers to
continue to act quickly on behalf of millions of people who
are depending on you to provide the critical resources we
all need to secure the future.
Among these, we urge you to prioritize the following
important elements:
Increase health care access through Medicaid: Lawmakers
must substantially increase the current FMAP increase to 15
percent for the traditional Medicaid populations (aged,
blind, disabled) and their services, with automatic
adjustments based on state economic conditions, and increase
the FMAP to 100 percent for the expansion population under
the Affordable Care Act (ACA). There should be no
modification on the maintenance of effort requirements.
These Medicaid increases must stay in place until the
economy recovers, measured by unemployment figures and other
economic measures. States like Ohio should be able to use
federal Medicaid funding to cover testing and treatment for
everyone, including immigrants who are part of our
community.
Worker Supports and Protections: Congress must take action
to protect workers on the job and off. More than a million
Ohioans have filed unemployment claims already and we expect
there will be more. Congress must ensure that workers who
lose jobs don’t also lose healthcare, housing and other
services by providing 100% COBRA premium relief for laid-off
and furloughed workers for the full-length of the economic
downturn until they are able to return to their jobs,
improving the ACA financial assistance to make private
coverage more affordable, provide housing assistance to make
sure everyone can pay rent or mortgages, and increase
funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) so people can put food on the table. For essential
workers who continue to go to work while facing huge risks
from COVID, Congress must ensure that workers are protected
through OSHA safety requirements that hold employers
accountable for providing protective equipment (PPE), that
they can take paid family and medical leave and paid sick
time to care for themselves and their family members.
Direct relief to state and local governments: State and
local governments are bearing the direct brunt of increased
needs and shrinking revenues during this time. Ohio is
debating use of the state’s rainy day fund to address
immediate needs, but it’s clear that won’t be sufficient to
avoid cuts in services that could both cost the state
additional jobs and services in the short term and slow down
recovery longer-term. The lesson of the last
recession--which is likely to dwarf the one precipitated by
the current pandemic--is that the federal government must
take action now to put in place resources. Congress must
provide at least $500 billion in unrestricted federal funds
to local and governments to support relief and support to
those who need it and to preempt future cuts in jobs and
services that will further slow down the economy and stretch
out the recession.
COVID is battering the United States, where more people have
been infected and more people have died than any other place
in the world. But the United States is also blessed with
many more resources and much greater capacity to respond to
crisis and challenge than most other countries.
It’s up to our elected officials to demonstrate meaningful
leadership by deploying our resources to best serve our
people, to prioritize the people who are most impacted, and
to provide for the long-term recovery of the nation based on
the many lessons we have learned from the past. Elected
leaders at every level must act on the moral imperative to
address current needs and lay the groundwork for rapid
recovery based on economic benchmarks that clearly indicate
improvements in people’s lives.
We look forward to working with your office to support these
kinds of efforts and encourage you to expedite Congressional
action to save lives and safeguard our future.
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