The New York and New Jersey delegations to Congress are asking for an additional $40 billion in aid to help fight coronavirus in their states, which remain the two hardest hit in the country.
"When you look at the number of cases nationwide, New York and New Jersey account for 45 percent of those cases, and yet they only received about 9 percent of hospital funding," Rep. Mikie Sherrill, (D-NJ 11th District) told Cheddar. "It's just not enough to meet the needs of the crisis we are facing."
Sherill joined the bipartisan delegation in signing a letter asking for funding to be apportioned to states based on the infection rate.
"We request that a separate fund of at least $40 billion be created in the interim emergency COVID-19 relief package and it be allocated among the States based upon their share of the national infection rate according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracking data on April 10, 2020," the letter said.
The representative said that New Jersey is going through a difficult moment in the progression of the outbreak, despite evidence that the rate of infection is flattening.
"Here in New Jersey, we're in a really tough time for coronavirus," she said. "The people coming into our emergency rooms are very sick. We're seeing people that have been sick for a long time. Some of them are now passing away, which is horrible. Our hospital workers are exhausted. We are really fighting hard against this virus."
Sherill said she was not opposed to the Trump administration's focus on reopening the economy, but that she wants to keep up social distancing for the time being.
"This is the time when I think we do need to be thinking about how we're going to restart the economy, with the understanding that the measures we have in place now we're starting to see the results, we're starting to see them working," she said.
Before states can reopen their economies, she added, they need to implement widespread testing with a focus on frontline workers and the severely ill.
"What we need with a national testing effort is some kind of coding system, so we can make sure that our health care workers, our first responders, some of the people who are in hospitals who are very sick and we want to make sure we're treating them for the correct disease, are tested first and tested most rapidly," Sherill said.
Sherill joined a number of Democratic lawmakers in calling for the president to be more aggressive at the federal level by invoking the Defense Production Act and helping states get the supplies they need, including the crucial reagents, to implement widespread testing.
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The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 a.m. eastern, as everyone awaits the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.
The Supreme Court is allowing Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now.
Rep. John Moolenaar has requested an urgent briefing from the White House after Trump supported a deal giving Americans a majority stake in TikTok.
A new report finds the Department of Government Efficiency’s remaking of the federal workforce has battered the Washington job market and put more households in the metropolitan area in financial distress.
A new poll finds U.S. adults are more likely than they were a year ago to think immigrants in the country legally benefit the economy. That comes as President Donald Trump's administration imposes new restrictions targeting legal pathways into the country. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds Americans are more likely than they were in March 2024 to say it’s a “major benefit” that people who come to the U.S. legally contribute to the economy and help American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. At the same time, perceptions of illegal immigration haven’t shifted meaningfully. Americans still see fewer benefits from people who come to the U.S. illegally.
Shares of Tylenol maker Kenvue are bouncing back sharply before the opening bell a day after President Donald Trump promoted unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism. Trump told pregnant women not to use the painkiller around a dozen times during the White House news conference Monday. The drugmaker tumbled 7.5%. Shares have regained most of those losses early Tuesday in premarket trading.
