RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is asking Virginians what they need during the coronavirus pandemic.
Kaine has been working from Richmond. He’s had daily conversations with small business associations, school leaders, and health care workers about the economic, educational, and health care challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis.
One of Kaine’s main focuses has been on finding out the issues Virginians are facing with the implementation of COVID-19 legislation — like the CARES Act. These bills are meant to help Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also bring challenges to systems that must change rapidly to meet the nation’s urgent needs for economic relief and increased health care supplies.
Virginians have helped Kaine identify several implementation issues with the new legislation, and he has worked with President Donald Trump’s administration to provide relief. One fix Kaine worked on was helping Virginia’s students get free lunches from their school district without having to go to their closed school in person, he said in a Thursday conference call.
“Many of the issues that we’re talking about are how can we fix implementation issues, and I’ll give credit to many of the folks in the Trump administration,” Kaine said. “They’ve been very willing to work with us on a number of fixes.”
One major issue Kaine has heard from Virginia’s hospitals is that they are not getting what they’re paying for.
Virginia’s hospitals are paying high prices for medical supplies to aid them in their treatment of COVID-19; however, when those orders arrive, hospitals are getting fewer supplies than they paid for, Kaine said.
Kaine said FEMA is commandeering a portion of the medical supplies ordered by Virginia’s hospitals. FEMA is reallocating these medical supplies to other areas of the country where communities are experiencing a COVID-19 surge. Kaine said FEMA has not been communicating with Virginia’s hospitals about commandeering these supplies, leaving healthcare workers feeling like they may not get adequate help with the heath care crisis in the Commonwealth’s communities should a surge arise, Kaine said.
“This economic challenge is driven by the public health emergency. There’s no amount of economic aid that’s going to be enough to get the economy going again if we don’t handle the public health side of this right,” Kaine said.
Kaine also acknowledged that COVID-19 isn’t just impacting the health of Americans at home — it’s also affecting the health of the nation’s military heroes, including U.S. Navy sailors.
Out of all of the military branches, the Navy has been hit the hardest by COVID-19, Kaine said.
Several sailors have tested positive for COVID-19. Sailors are particularly vulnerable because they must live in close quarters on ships.
Kaine has encouraged the Department of Defense to consider delaying military boot camps and trainings when possible. If those exercises can’t be delayed, Kaine said he’s asked the DoD to consider quarantining service members before they leave to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“If you do that, it may affect other personnel issues. You may need to reach out to other members of the armed services who are nearing the end of a contract period and see if they extend for 6 months,” Kaine said.
Kaine said that Congress continues to work on COVID-19 legislation — as well as the National Defense Authorizing Act. Kaine believes the NDAA will be heavily focused on COVID-19 this year.