Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell removes mask: Google

By Glynn Wilson –

The deadly, novel coronavirus is still spreading across the land. The number of reported deaths from COVID-19 are still going up. The economy is stalling again, and millions of Americans just exhausted their federally subsidized unemployment benefits.

The House is still in session in Washington, D.C. working on a new economic relief package.

So what did the United States Senate do?

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared an August recess and went home to Kentucky to campaign for re-election, where he’s at risk of losing his seat to Democrat Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot.

There are now more than 4.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., with over 158,000 deaths nationwide. In Alabama, the number of cases is more than 92,000, with over 1,600 dead.

Attack Ads

Apparently McConnell is also behind spending millions of dollars to try to get rid of U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama with negative television attack ads, knowing that the Alabama seat is critical to which party will hold control of the Senate come January.

Anti-Jones attack ads begin on the day after the runoff

Related: The Race for Control of the U.S. Senate is On: Alabama’s Doug Jones Now Has an Opponent

Senate Recess

So over the weekend, Jones went to work and teamed up with a group of Senators to call on McConnell to bring the Senate back into session to reach a bipartisan deal and address the public health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

Along with Jones, Democrats Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, 10 Senators signed a letter calling for McConnell to delay the August recess until a relief package can be passed.

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. has been relentless, bringing about a public health crisis and an economy teetering on the edge of catastrophe,” the Senators wrote. “Across the country, Americans are fearful and anxious as loved ones get sick, families go hungry, small businesses go under, and workers continue to go without pay.

“State and local coffers have run dry, tenants can’t afford the rent, state unemployment systems are overwhelmed, and over 150,000 Americans have died,” the letter continued. “Despite this, it has been over four months since the Senate passed a comprehensive relief package, and the relief we provided is running out. In the circumstances we find ourselves, it is imperative that the Senate be in session through the remainder of this weekend and all of next week – working not on partisan nominations, but on bipartisan coronavirus relief for the American people.”

Senator Jones has been a vocal critic of McConnell’s delays in bringing a strong, bipartisan relief bill up for a vote, especially as millions of Americans’ unemployment benefits expired Friday and as another month of rent and mortgage payments are coming due. Senator Jones has called for a renewal of emergency unemployment benefits, as well as more relief for health care providers, small businesses and workers, schools, state departments of labor, and incentives for states to expand Medicaid. He has also called for an extension of the federal eviction moratorium, and for the State of Alabama to renew its own eviction moratorium which was lifted on June 1.

“With this in mind and with federal unemployment benefits having expired … we implore you to bring the Senate back into session … and pass bipartisan legislation to help working Americans and families.”

Tuberville Spotted in DC

Meanwhile, Jones’ Republican opponent, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, has been spotted at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. raising money from right-wing groups, in defiance of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s mask order and “against the advice of nearly every medical expert,” according to Jones’ campaign manager Doug Turner.

“I know you have read this before – put it in the ‘crazy but true’ file’,” Turner said in an email blast to supporters. “When asked how he would deal with COVID-19,” Turner said, Tubberville responded, “I wouldn’t have a clue.”

Schools Meals

Jones has also been calling for an expansion of the school meal program, urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide additional financial relief to schools to help them expand their school meals programs for the 2020-2021 school year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools around the country to close their buildings and shift instruction to online and distance-learning models,” the senators wrote in a letter to USDA. “For many children, school breakfast and lunch may be the only healthy and regular meals they receive.”

To help ensure school meal program directors and staff have the certainty that they need to begin preparing for the upcoming school year, the senators are urging the USDA to extend a variety of waivers that will help ensure low-income students can access school-provided meals throughout the upcoming school year.

“The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in millions of parents losing their jobs, and millions more students will be dependent on school-provided meals,” The senators continued. “School meal program directors must begin procuring food, equipment, and supplies and placing orders now in preparation for the upcoming school year.”

The senators are also calling on the USDA to reimburse schools for the transportation costs for delivering meals to low-income students.

“While many school meal programs are managing these costs for the time-being, they cannot continue absorbing them for the foreseeable future. We ask that the USDA make additional funds available to schools to assist with the cost of delivering meals to low-income students until regular school operations are restored.”

You can read the full text of the letter to McConnell here.

Related: Alabama Senator Doug Jones Holds the Key to Victory in 2020 for Democrats in the United States Senate