Your Letters: The Senate must pass the HEROES Act

The HEROES Act, a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package, has been sitting on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk for more than 2½ months. Yet, as the virus spread and the economic situation got worse, McConnell chose to do nothing, leaving working people in Missouri and throughout the nation in peril.

The relief package proposed by McConnell and Senate Republicans on July 27 is $2 trillion short and 73 days late. It is cruel slap in the face to working families hard hit by the economic fallout of the coronavirus. The bill slashes by two-thirds the expiring supplemental unemployment benefits of $600 a week that thousands of Missouri families, laid-off through no fault of our own, are relying on as they struggle to put food on the table, keep the lights on and make rent and mortgage payments. During a time when millions of working people are without a job, health insurance or retirement security, the package also includes a bill from Sen. Mitt Romney that fast-tracks Social Security and Medicare cuts.

With summer recess fast approaching, time is running out. I am calling on Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt to step up and show what it means to be a leader in a time of crisis: The Senate must pass the HEROES Act.

PAT WHITE
President
St. Louis Labor Council