As More Than 30 Million Workers File For Unemployment, Republicans Keep Making it Harder to Get Health Coverage While State & Local Governments Face Fiscal Crisis

Senate Republicans Remain Silent and Refuse to Hold Administration Accountable For Keeping Special Health Insurance Enrollment Period Closed

GOP Obstruction of Federal Aid for State and Local Governments Forced Into “Mass Layoffs” in Cities and States Amid Fallout from Coronavirus

3.8 million people filed new claims for unemployment insurance as overall jobless claims hit a “staggering 30.3 million” for the past six weeks, according to new numbers released today by the U.S. Labor Department. “Mass layoffs” of state and local government workers have begun across the country as states and cities struggle to combat the effects of coronavirus and descend into crisis. Republicans in Washington are holding additional federal aid hostage.

While a record number of Americans are out of work and millions are losing their health coverage in the middle of a deadly pandemic that already has a death toll in America of more than 60,000, the Trump administration has stood by its irresponsible decision to keep special enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace closed. The Republican lawsuit to overturn the entire health care law is moving forward and will start being reviewed by the Supreme Court in the coming weeks.

These GOP positions are not just wrong and harmful to the country — they are deeply unpopular with voters.

Six weeks into this unprecedented spike in unemployment amid a public health crisis:

• Senate Republicans are still unwilling to stand up to the administration to demand Trump open a special enrollment period for health coverage

• Senate Republicans are still refusing to take meaningful action to stop the dangerous GOP lawsuit that would overturn the entire ACA and wipe away all of its protections

• Senate Republicans are still obstructing necessary federal aid to state and local governments, as Mitch McConnell insists states going bankrupt should be “an option”

“Senate Republicans are enabling Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump to put their own partisan political agenda in Washington ahead of what’s right for Americans’ health care and economic security across the country,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “Republicans’ uncompromising refusal to make it easier to get health care during a pandemic and outrageous attacks on federal aid to state and local governments are disgraceful and out of touch with the struggles that millions of Americans are facing right now.”

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