Blumenthal Calls for Passage of Heroes Fund & Bicameral Nursing Home Legislation to Address Devastating COVID-19 Toll on Seniors at Aging Committee Hearing

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – During a Senate Aging Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) highlighted the staggering impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on seniors and emphasized the need for passage of two comprehensive measures to address the high proportion of cases and deaths in nursing homes around the country.

In his opening remarks, Blumenthal recalled his recent visit to the First Congregational Church in Greenwich, Connecticut, to place white flags on the church lawn to commemorate every life lost to the disease: “Every one of those flags represents a life and the thousands of lives lost around the country. Seventy percent of them are seniors, 7 in 10, and many are in nursing homes. So the obligation that we have to these vulnerable individuals is brought home very dramatically and graphically by that picture worth a thousand words, literally.”

Blumenthal stressed his support for the Senate Democrats’ Heroes Fund proposal, which would provide hazard duty pay for essential workers, including nursing home employees. The proposal can be found here. A similar proposal was included in the recently-passed U.S. House of Representatives’ Heroes Act. In her reply to Blumenthal’s question about pay for nursing home workers, University of Chicago professor R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD, emphasized that the low wages made by nurses, as well as the frequent lack of paid sick leave and health insurance generally contribute to staffing issues, but are exacerbated by the pandemic.

Blumenthal also called for the passage of bicameral legislation he introduced earlier this month, which would immediately address the disproportionally high number of nursing home deaths happening in Connecticut and throughout the country. The Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents and Workers During COVID-19 Act would require weekly testing of every resident and testing before every shift for health care workers, mandate that all health care workers have sufficient PPE and comprehensive safety training around addressing COVID-19, and that each facility has a full-time infection control preventionist on staff to keeps residents and workers safe. The legislation would also guarantee that sufficient staff is available to facilitate weekly “virtual visits” between residents and their families. More information about the legislation can be found here.

The Obama administration required at least one infection control preventionist to be employed by each nursing home to remedy the issue of inadequate infection control practices, but the Trump administration has proposed significantly weakening this requirement.

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