Coronavirus' Impact on Minority Communities

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me this evening and being here with other colleagues because we know, and we have said over and over again, that we face public health and economic crises unlike any that our country has seen in a generation.

More than 245,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Tens of millions are out of work. And we know how communities of color have suffered acutely and disproportionately.

While we have known about some of these issues in the past, about the inequities in our healthcare system, in our economy, this virus has exposed and shone a light on the depths of the injustices and inequities that exist for communities of color. While we need to fight the virus, we need to fight the virus of injustice.

In my home State of Connecticut, as of last Thursday, Black people accounted for more than 14.5 percent of Connecticut's COVID-related deaths when they are just 12 percent of the population.

Mr. Speaker, 18 percent of COVID cases are Hispanic, outpacing the 17 percent they make up of our State's population.

Yet, this data is not perfect, which is why I have been so proud to work with my friend and my colleague, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, to require the Health and Human Services agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide Congress with the data on which communities are bearing the worst impacts so that we can make sure that testing--once we have an administration that takes testing strategy seriously--is focused on those communities and that they get the resources they need going forward.

My colleague from California, Congresswoman Lee, has been indefatigable in questioning the issue of the data that we have on communities of color, and she did this long before we probably could spell ``coronavirus.'' To be frank, it is frustrating that we even had to put this requirement into law.

The CDC is complying with the reporting, but we keep a vigilant eye on that information. We have more work to do to ensure that we have complete data.

Through November 12, 47 percent of cases had unknown race and ethnicity in the CDC's surveillance system. That is just not good enough. This moment demands the boldest possible efforts to secure affordable healthcare, to address the deep racial disparities exposed by this virus, to help families.

I am proud to chair this subcommittee, which has been central to our response to this pandemic and the disparities that it has exposed. Together, my colleagues on the committee and on this subcommittee, we have appropriated $280 billion in emergency funding for education, for health, for working people throughout the pandemic. Through the good offices of my colleagues, Congresswoman Lee and Congresswoman Bass, we inserted language that would focus on the issue of disparities and how we address them. We could add $400 million in the latest iteration of The Heroes Act.

Yet the United States Senate has refused to do anything to help struggling Americans and get us to a place where we can test everyone, that we can do contact tracing, and that we can provide treatment.

We know more is needed. So, as I mentioned, the House has passed two additional relief packages, and we looked at boosting SNAP benefits by 15 percent; expanding access to paid leave and paid sick days; and expanding and improving the child tax credit for one-third of our children, which includes half of Black and Hispanic children, who are currently left behind because their families earn too little. If we do not address the virus, we will not be able to do anything about turning our economy around.

Let me say a thank-you to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who has been a tireless champion for communities of color, for organizing this Special Order. She and I, along with others, are committed to bringing to bear the full weight of the Federal Government for the communities of color, not only in my district, but around the country, because together we can and we must do better. People's lives are depending on it.

We know what we need to do to save lives. It is incomprehensible that we can't get to a protocol which allows us to save people's lives and those in communities of color, which are affected the most.

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