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CONGRESSMAN JOE MORELLE INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO CREATE MASSIVE JOBS TRAINING PROGRAM TO COMBAT COVID-19

July 15, 2020

Program will create more than one million jobs, bolster critical contact tracing efforts, and help communities safely re-open

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congressman Joe Morelle (NY-25) and Mark Takano (CA-41) introduced legislation to create a massive new jobs training program to combat COVID-19 and help communities across the country safely re-open. The Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act will help states across the country hire more than a million workers to perform critical mitigation, containment, and tracing work to prevent future outbreaks.

"COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our economy and our society as we know it, leaving millions of Americans out of work," said Congressman Morelle. "This unprecedented moment calls for unprecedented action—and that means a national mobilization that will not only create jobs for more than one million workers, but also help strengthen contact tracing efforts that are essential to the safety of our communities. It is a privilege to join my friend Rep. Takano to introduce this much-needed legislation to help families and move America forward."

"Contact tracing is a key to reopening our economy and resuming our lives safely, but doing so effectively is going to require adequate staffing," said Rep. Mark Takano. "Rep. Morelle and I are introducing legislation to create a job training program to build a workforce that can help combat the COVID-19 pandemic in communities across the country. The Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act would create one million jobs nationwide that would harness the power of the American people to carry out the crucial containment, mitigation strategies, and contact tracing that is needed to fight COVID-19 and prevent the spread of the virus. As millions of workers suffer from unemployment due to this public health crisis, creating these jobs would give people the ability to work and help bolster local efforts to fight this virus."

"Contact tracing has become one of the most important tools we have to help control the spread of COVID-19 and keep our community healthy," said Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. "At a time when the nation is facing unparalleled unemployment, it's imperative that the Federal government take serious action to help get people back to work so they can support their families and make ends meet. By funding and training contact tracers, this legislation will create new job opportunities for our workforce, and improve and protect the public health of Monroe County and communities across the nation. I am grateful to Congressman Joe Morelle for his support throughout this unprecedented pandemic and commend him for the leadership and vision that will help us get through this together."

"Five or six months ago, few people outside of public health knew what contact tracing is and how important it can be. Today, contact tracing and the steps that follow are recognized as vital to our community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Michael Mendoza, Monroe County Commissioner of Public Health. "This legislation recognizes the essential and sometimes lifesaving work contact tracers do, and it addresses the pressing need for more individuals to be trained and employed in this field."

Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Duffy said, "On behalf of Rochester and Finger Lakes businesses, I want to thank Congressmen Morelle and Takano for their leadership as lead sponsors of this bill. As we continue with reopening and look toward recovery, legislation like this will be instrumental by both creating good jobs and helping to keep our communities safe. For decades Joe Morelle has served Rochester and the Finger Lakes incredibly well. Today, he is leading the way nationally to ensure funding is available to successfully combat this pandemic so we can build our businesses back stronger than ever before."

More than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, many of whom remain unsure if or when they will be able to go back to work. As many states work through periods of reopening, there is a strong need to bolster these departments with the resources to perform mitigation, containment, and tracing work to prevent future outbreaks, presenting a unique opportunity to help unemployed workers earn a living wage while serving their communities and our country.

The Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act will:

  • Require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish and implement a national evidence-based system for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, surveillance, containment, and mitigation;
  • Provide $100 billion in grants to state and local governments to hire, train, and deploy newly unemployed workers to perform pandemic response work in their communities;
  • Allow newly unemployed workers to help states and localities serve the growing public needs of this crisis by providing a public health infrastructure prepared to mitigate, contain, and trace further COVID-19 outbreaks.
  • Facilitate immediate hiring and placement during this period of limited mobility, the bill will ensure that unemployment insurance systems, workforce development boards, and community organizations collaborate to bring awareness to the program and direct unemployed workers to apply.
  • Be administered by the Department of Labor and allocations will be made to States and localities via grants, with the funding being channeled to put Americans back to work at a Service Contract Act prevailing wages.
  • Require the CDC and Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide guidance and technical assistance on standards and protocols to ensure that workers are properly trained, can perform their work safely, and that the work that is done through this program will have a robust impact in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks.

Additional details about the legislation can be found here. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Senators Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), and is also co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)

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Issues:COVID-19