Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has announced the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act legislation to bring together health care and other policy experts, community-based organizations, and federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial leaders to confront the racial and ethnic disparities of the coronavirus pandemic head on.
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the urgent need to address long-standing inequities in our healthcare system. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL-02), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, is expected to introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
“People of color are being infected and dying from coronavirus at astounding rates,” Harris said. “This is in part due to persistent lack of access to healthcare, bias in our healthcare system, systematic barriers to equal pay and housing, and environmental injustice. It is critical that the federal government proactively work to right historical wrongs that have led to racial inequities for generations. The COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act is a necessary step to fully understand the impact of this virus in the hardest hit communities, and make targeted investments that correspond with their unique needs.”
Kelly emphasized that COVID-19 is taking an “oversized toll” on communities of color.
“It’s critical that we examine these disparities at the highest possible levels of our government and develop solutions to address, reduce and end them,” Kelly said. “Fundamentally, we need this analysis to give us hard, in-your-face proof of what we’ve known for generations to drive policy change.”
The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish an interagency task force of policy experts, community leaders and government officials to make data-driven recommendations to federal agencies about directing crucial resources—like testing kits, testing supplies, and personal protective equipment (PPE)—to communities with racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death rates. The task force’s work would guide a more equitable government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health crises.
Harris has augmented the bill with a special “SOS Act” (Save Our Street) to help fortify struggling businesses on “Main Street America.” This addendum will provide a new grant for micro-businesses (those with fewer than 10 employees). The grants will extend to $250,000 for small businesses and small non-profits in low-income areas (where at least 50 percent of the employees reside in the area where the business is located).
Harris wants to make sure that minority-owned businesses are “receiving their fair share” of government monetary allocations during the pandemic.
“The federal government assistance to the pandemic has been wholly inadequate,” Harris said.
“Our country has long faced racial and ethnic disparities in virtually every facet of American life. COVID-19 has not only shed a light on these disparities but exacerbated them,” said Danyelle Soloman, vice president of race and ethnicity at the Center for American Progress. “Senator Harris’ legislation will not only address the current inequities we see in the response to COVID-19, but it will begin to address the structural issues causing these disparities that have persisted for generations.”
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said equitable support is not reaching the nation’s hardest hit regions.
“The novel coronavirus pandemic has sickened and killed Black and Latino people at disparate rates,” Morial said. “We need to convene health care and policy experts with local leaders in order to allocate the necessary resources to meet everyone’s needs—especially in communities that have historically suffered from unfair and insufficient response from the government during times of crisis. The National Urban League is proud to support this legislation that will deliver much-needed federal support to our communities during these challenging times.”
