Washington, D.C. – The Democratic majority of the United States House of Representatives presented on Wednesday night the project that seeks to assist families and workers in the face of the pandemic of coronavirus, which includes a direct allocation of food assistance and Medicaid for Puerto Rico that exceeds $ 200 million.
The bill, which will be voted on today, Thursday, aims to meet the economic needs of workers, including health system officials, who have to temporarily leave their jobs because of being diagnosed with the coronavirus, be put on quarantine on suspicion of having COVID-19, having to attend to a relative or child whose school is closed due to the emergency.
Paid leave for workers can pay up to $ 4,000 or two-thirds of the employee’s salary.
It also makes it easier for workers to access the food assistance program and strengthens the unemployment insurance program.
For states, legislation allows the United States Department of Agriculture to approve state plans to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency assistance to families with children who would receive free or reduced price meals if it were not for this emergency.
To be eligible, the school must be closed for at least five days.
For non-SNAP territories – Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands – it is proposed that the three territories split an allocation of up to $ 100 million in food assistance.
The legislation also includes an emergency allocation of Medicaid funds, which in the case of Puerto Rico would guarantee an additional $ 120 million in this federal fiscal year and another $ 85 million by 2021.
Funds are above, for example, the $ 2,623 million Medicaid allocated to Puerto Rico for this federal fiscal year.
Democrats have stressed the importance that legislation requires free testing for coronavirus.
“We cannot fight coronavirus effectively unless everyone in this country knows that they can be tested for free. We cannot stop the coronavirus outbreak when workers are caught with the terrible choice between staying home to avoid spreading disease and the salary their family cannot afford to lose, “said the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
The legislation funds, with $ 500 million, the supplemental nutritional program for women, infants and children.
Last week, Congress passed – and President Donald Trump signed into law – another $ 8.3 billion, which is an early payment to authorities to address the coronavirus medical emergency. Of those funds, the federal Health Department assigned him Wednesday $ 5.87 million to Puerto Rico.
The chair of the Appropriations Committee, Nita Lowey, indicated that the original legislation sought to “stabilize our public health system.”
“New House Democrats legislation puts working families first by providing new resources and more protections as our country faces this public health emergency,” Lowey said in a statement, after filing the bill.
After President Trump offered a message to the American nation, primarily to announce travel restrictions from 26 European countries, Pelosi and Senate Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer (New York) issued a written statement in the They stated that “the best way to help keep the American people safe and ensure their economic security is for the President to focus on fighting the spread of the coronavirus.”
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