WASHINGTON -- Friday, the House is expected to vote on the latest $3 trillion stimulus package put together by Democrats. Hundreds of members have traveled back to Washington, DC to consider the bill including Coachella Valley Democrat Raul Ruiz.
Ruiz said his district is suffering more than others across California and said he’s glad the House isn’t waiting to try to pass legislation if people are hungry and dying amid the pandemic, even if GOP members don’t support the bill.
Ruiz said Riverside County has been hit harder by the virus than other places, and early on, “led the state with 20% of the deaths, even though [they] were less than 1% of the population,” due to the high-risk demographics. He said the area has a large senior and homeless population and a higher-than-average number of patients with HIV, diabetes, and pulmonary disease.
He said while the area has three good hospitals, those facilities only have ‘moderate capacity,’ so he’s been working to elevate the urgency to increase capacity and educate constituents about staying safe.
Ruiz said he’s also fighting to expand health care coverage plans for COVID-19 treatments and services, reopen ACA enrollment for two months, and secure billions of dollars to tribes and tribal organizations.
Democratic leaders have included Ruiz’s provisions in the latest package: the HEROES Act, but GOP leaders said the bill is just a list of “aspirations” with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling it an “unserious bill.”
“It reminds me of the administration saying how ‘unserious’ the coronavirus pandemic was at the beginning and look at us now,” Ruiz said. “We didn’t take it serious enough to address it when we should have addressed it and now we’re behind the curve and a lot of people are suffering and it didn’t need to be this way. Our economy, our health care, all those individuals who passed away from COVID-19; it didn’t have to be this way if we were to have taken this seriously in the early stages, so once again we are sounding the alarm.”
Ruiz said he’s proud this HEROES Act includes a trillion dollars to state and local cities, to pay essential workers who live in cities with populations less than 500,000, like parts of his district.
But Republicans are vowing to block the bill and said legislatures need to understand the national debt, learn from the previous bills, and take a pause, accusing Democrats of trying to send a message rather than deal with the problem seriously.
Many Republicans say while more money could help, the best thing to do now is getting people back to work and others have voiced issues with the provisions that grant money and protections to undocumented immigrants.
The HEROES Act includes more direct payments to Americans. The last bill offered $1,200 to each adult, plus $500 per child; this one offers the same for adults, but $1,200 per child.
Friday the House is expected to vote on proxy voting as well, which would allow one House member in the chamber to vote for up to 10 members who are not present. Republicans have described the potential rule change as a “power grab."