From the McGrath campaign: What Now? Unemployment Insurance, PPP Set to Expire for Kentucky Families, Businesses

McGrath wants funds for schools, state and local governments, national plan and resources for testing-and-tracing program

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Retired Marine Lt. Col. Amy McGrath said Sen. Mitch McConnell’s failure to have federal funding in place to replace expiring unemployment insurance benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program is yet another example of his letting down Kentucky families and small businesses and of his weak leadership during a time of crisis. 

McGrath, who is running to unseat the unpopular senator, said she would have been in Washington, D.C., several weeks ago working to renew these programs, to secure funding for schools and state and local governments, and to ensure needed financial and strategic support for states to implement testing and tracing programs. 

McConnell was asked Tuesday if the next round of federal aid would pass by July 31. According to news sources, he “let out a big laugh and said ‘no.’”

Unemployment insurance benefits expire for Americans July 31; the Paycheck Protection Program ends Aug. 8. 

“While Mitch wasted the last two weeks peddling lies on campaign stops in an attempt to convince Kentuckians he’s working for us, I would have been working to help Kentuckians stay above water until we can get through the biggest economic and health crisis of our lifetimes,” McGrath said. 

McGrath said her top short-term priorities in the Senate would be a national plan and resources for testing-and-tracing, significant funding for state and local governments, and the continuation of the unemployment insurance that has kept families afloat the last several months. 

She also called for significant funds and strategic support for schools to acquire PPE and other necessary resources to keep students and teachers safe either through distance learning, in-person instruction or a combination of both. 

McGrath has said decisions on how students are instructed in the fall should be made at the local level based on the public health risks in each community and federal support of schools should not be dependent on what decisions are made. Rather, McConnell needs to immediately take action on the $1.3 billion for Kentucky schools sitting on his desk for schools to have a chance of opening safely. 

Her long-term vision for legislative efforts includes reinvesting in public health infrastructure, stockpiles and supply chains, creating a commission to examine the ways our response to COVID-19 needed to be different, and ensuring top public health appointees are insulated from politics, like the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is, by ensuring they no longer serve at the “pleasure of the president.” Her full plan is outlined here. 

McGrath said McConnell right now should be focused on making sure we can control this pandemic and on keeping our country from going into a depression instead of taking care of his special-interest friends through million-dollar tax breaks and unsupervised slush funds. 

“We have to prioritize getting the pandemic’s spread under our control,” she said. “Doing so is a matter of life and death for Americans and is the first step to helping revitalize our economy. While Mitch likes to call federal aid ‘stimulus money,’ let’s call it what it really is: an emergency measure to make sure we get our country and state back on track from his failed leadership.”