Madison, WI — As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into 2021, a new piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel lays out how President Biden’s American Rescue Plan would provide local governments across Wisconsin with the resources needed to respond to the economic and health care-related consequences from  the pandemic, and offer much needed relief to struggling Wisconsinites.

Last weekend, House Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, moving the country one step closer to strengthening the Affordable Care Act and providing desperately needed pandemic relief, despite Republicans’ attempts to block it. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel piece points out, “virtually every local government in Wisconsin would receive aid” if the Senate approves the bill.

“Wisconsin and its local governments would receive $5.5 billion in federal help to fight COVID-19 and its economic toll — far more than what they got last year — under legislation recently approved by the U.S. House.

The state would receive $3.2 billion and Wisconsin local governments would receive $2.3 billion in help, according to estimates from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.”

On Monday, State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Racine Mayor Cory Mason joined Wisconsin advocates at a virtual press conference to urge the Senate to set aside partisan politics, and take swift action to pass the bill.

“There are some ideologues who claim that this package is too big — these folks are clearly trapped in the Washington bubble and disconnected from the economic pain that household budgets are facing,” said Wisconsin State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski. “The risk is not doing too much, it’s doing too little.”

Others speaking at the press conference urged Senator Ron Johnson to consider how deeply Wisconsinites have suffered over the past year, and how desperately those on the frontlines of the pandemic need relief.

“On behalf of my fellow Wsiconsinites, who I have the pleasure and honor of serving every day, I truly hope that our elected officials in the state legislature and in Washington look deep into their consciences and prove to us that party lines are not more important than the promises that they made to their constituents,” said Sunny Sunny Kurhajetz, a municipal employee from Madison.

You can read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s breakdown of the American Rescue Plan here, watch Monday’s press conference here, and learn more about how President Biden’s American Rescue Plan would lower costs and expand access to health care here.

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