100 signatures reached
To: Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell
The Coronavirus is a Test for Our Commonwealth and Country -- You Are Failing
The historic coronavirus pandemic demands further leadership from the Senate. Act now to respond to the clear needs we are facing:
*Provide direct aid to states;
*Ensure the November elections are safe and fair by expanding vote by mail;
*End efforts to protect unsafe corporations;
*Require a national testing and tracing protocol to ensure our economy reopens safely.
With critical efforts to keep our commonwealth and country safe at home to avoid overwhelming our healthcare system, we are now experiencing unprecedented levels of unemployment.
The significant impact to the economy has left Kentucky facing a $500 million deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30th. Kentucky is not alone, every state and many cities are dealing with massive budgetary challenges due to the economic drop-off. Without federal assistance, it is likely many state and city workers will be forced to join the historic unemployment rolls.
You must act. It would be insanity to cut state services in this moment of historic need. In order to keep our commonwealth and country safe and able to respond to to the demands of the pandemic, the Senate must include direct aid to states and equally struggling cities.
With many infectious disease experts predicting a return of coronavirus transmission in the fall, it is time to make sure states have plans and resources to hold safe elections in November. Greatly expanded vote by mail is a commonsense measure the Senate must support to protect our democracy.
Your current "red line" to force blanket immunity for corporations is a legislative embarrassment, and would only serve to encourage corporations to reopen with unsafe practices for workers and customers. The public deserves better than this, and we must defend the ability to hold irresponsible corporations accountable for their behavior.
Similarly, the Senate must lead to ensure our economy reopens safely by requiring and supporting nationwide testing and contact tracing protocols. Without these efforts we will likely erase all the important work our commonwealth and country did to "flatten the curve" and stay healthy at home.
Please set aside your obsessive focus on reshaping the federal judiciary, and truly meet the needs of this historic moment by supporting and enacting these necessary efforts.
Why is this important?
With six months to go until the November elections, the U.S. Senate has a waning opportunity to show our country what compassionate, bipartisan leadership looks like, and whether majority leader Mitch McConnell is capable of that leadership.
His legacy will likely be defined by how the Senate meets this historic challenge. An obsessive focus on reshaping the federal judiciary will pale in comparison to an underwhelming and tepid response to the significant needs of our commonwealth and nation to meet the coronavirus crisis.
Sen. McConnell's recent actions are deeply troubling. From stating, “Some of these governors, particularly the Democrat governors, it seems, enjoy this extra power over people’s lives, and ... the governors have been struck down, been overruled, for being sort of drunk with power at the opportunity to keep everybody locked up,” to recently saying that President Obama should "keep his mouth shut," and calling him "classless." This comes on the heels of his irresponsible suggestion that states should declare bankruptcy instead of expecting federal support.
Please sign and share our petition to encourage Leader McConnell to make the most of the moment, and set a new, bipartisan direction for his leadership of the current Senate session.