[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 171 (Thursday, October 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5122-H5123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WE ARE A NATION IN CRISIS

  (Ms. DEAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DEAN. Madam Speaker, more than 207,000 Americans are dead, and 
there is no end in sight. One in six Americans is jobless.
  These are not just numbers. These are people. They have lost their 
livelihoods, their health, their careers. Many have lost everything. It 
did not have to be this way.
  Our Nation had its first confirmed COVID case in January, and yet 9 
months later, there is no national testing strategy, no leadership from 
the White House.
  We have a President who would rather save face, save power to 
himself, than save lives, who corrosively continues to play politics as 
people die.
  We are a Nation in crisis. People are in despair.
  Government has a role to play. We must act with urgency and decency 
as we support one another with direct cash relief, funds for State and 
local governments, widespread testing, and the guarantee of free COVID 
treatment and vaccines for all.
  Let us live up to Elijah Cummings' command: ``We are better than 
this.''

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