Blumenthal Urges Senate Action to Address Student Internet Access Disparities & Nursing Home Devastation on the Senate Floor as Senate Republicans Continue to Stall on COVID-19 Relief Package

[WASHINGTON, DC] – As Senate Republicans continue to stall on COVID-19 pandemic relief legislation, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the Senate Floor yesterday, emphasizing the need for urgent and comprehensive action on two major priorities for Connecticut residents: ensuring students have reliable internet access for online education, and to provide support for nursing home residents and staff disproportionally devastated by the coronavirus.

Speaking on the Senate Floor, Blumenthal stressed the essential role reliable internet access plays in students’ education, especially as some schools continue to rely on online education. He pointed out stark racial disparities in internet access which create barriers to educational opportunity: “We're leaving behind those students who most need the help. And in this time of national reckoning over racial justice, these barriers to education opportunity are even more dramatic, more profound, and more lasting.”

He called for the Senate to include emergency funds to expand broadband access, including the Lifeline and E-Rate programs, in the upcoming relief package to ensure that all students have reliable access to the internet, recalling sweeping action taken in the past: “We have to take the kind of significant steps now that we took after Hurricane Katrina. The FCC took sweeping action to make sure that individuals whose lives were upended by disaster were connected. Within one month the FCC dedicated more than $200 million to fund connectivity efforts and aggressively expanded Lifeline and E-Rate programs. We're not even close to matching that commitment. And remember the bold plan in that instance was from George W. Bush and from the FCC majority he appointed. This time again, we must take bold bipartisan action. We can help bridge this divide and close the gap.”

Blumenthal also stressed the need for urgent action to bring relief to nursing home workers and residents, pointing out that health disparities have made the impact of COVID-19 even more devastating for older communities of color. He called for the Senate to advance legislative priorities he has championed, including the Heroes Fund to reward and recruit essential frontline workers, the Nursing Home COVID-19 Protection and Prevention Act to provide a surge in resources to protect nursing home residents, and the Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents and Workers During COVID-19 Act to implement reforms to address the egregious number of nursing home deaths.

“We need to move forward without delay. There is no excuse for spending time debating this issue. We all know that these steps are necessary. There should be no politics. Nursing homes do not provide care for red or blue residents. They do not employ red or blue frontline workers. This cause should be bipartisan. Unfortunately, the Republican proposal fails to provide virtually any resources, certainly nothing like the $20 billion that we are asking. And so I hope we will move forward as reasonable, caring minds and hearts must do, and make sure that we provide the resources necessary to do justice to these heroes,” said Blumenthal.

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