NEWS: Sanders, Hirono, Markey, Merkley, Warren, and Welch Urge Equal Funding for Domestic Emergencies in Supplemental Appropriations Bill

Letter

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell:

The Senate is preparing an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to respond to the ongoing
humanitarian and military crises in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and elsewhere. We support providing
that funding without delay. As part of that bill we ask that you include an equal amount of
funding to address the urgent and growing emergencies facing the American people.

The supplemental cannot just be about responding to emergencies abroad. In America today,
working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor are struggling to deal with major
crises at home that demand our immediate attention.

How can we tell our constituents who are struggling to pay for the basic necessities of life that
Congress can immediately provide tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding to deal with
emergencies abroad, but we somehow cannot afford to respond to the severe economic pain that
they are feeling at home?

We have a responsibility to act boldly to respond to ALL of the major emergencies we face --
both at home and abroad.

Our child care system is in a state of emergency. As a result of the child care funding cliff,
3.2 million kids in our country are in danger of losing the child care they currently have, over
70,000 child care programs will likely shut down, and over 230,000 child care workers could
lose their jobs. Congress must provide adequate funding in the supplemental to make sure that
every working family in America has access to affordable and high-quality child care.

Our primary health care system is in a state of emergency. In America today, it has been
estimated that 68,000 people die each year because they cannot afford to go to a doctor when
they get sick. Moreover, tens of millions of Americans are unable to access the primary care,
dental care and behavioral health care that they desperately need. The massive shortage of
primary care doctors, nurses and dentists in our country is a major reason why life expectancy in
America is in decline and is at its lowest level since the mid-1990s. We must address the crisis
of lack of access to health care in the supplemental.

The lack of affordable housing in America is an emergency. In America today, evictions and
foreclosures are skyrocketing as the price of rent and monthly mortgage payments become
increasingly unaffordable. Nearly 600,000 Americans are homeless on any given night and
some 18 million families are paying over half of their limited incomes on housing. The
supplemental must include funding to address the affordable housing crisis in America.

The opioid crisis in America is an emergency. Last year, more than 105,000 Americans died
from opioid overdoses - up more than 60 percent from five years ago. The supplemental must
not only include funding to prevent fentanyl from coming into our country, it must also provide
emergency funding to address the severe shortage of addiction specialists and behavioral health
professionals in America.

Food insecurity in America is an emergency. In America today, 34 million Americans
including some 9 million children are food insecure. That should not be happening in the richest
country in the history of the world. At a minimum, President Biden's full Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) must be included in the emergency
supplemental to prevent pregnant mothers and babies from being put on waiting lists for their
urgent nutritional needs.

Natural disasters impacting our communities are an emergency. This year, the United States
broke the record for the number of disasters causing over $1 billion in damages, a figure that is
expected to increase due to global climate change. The federal government has a responsibility to
help communities, businesses, and farmers recover from these disasters and rebuild sustainably
and resiliently to mitigate the impacts of future disasters--that means substantial investments in
emergency relief programs through federal agencies outside of FEMA, like the Community
Development Block Grant -- Disaster Recovery program.

We look forward to meeting with you soon to discuss how we can work together to address these
crises as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Source