U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut proposes a federal compensation fund for essential workers who have become ill or died as a result of COVID-19. He says it should be modeled after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Blumenthal says the federal government needs to provide financial support to first responders, other frontline workers and their families who contract COVID-19. He says it’s a war against an invisible enemy much as 9/11 was a response to terrorist attacks.
“Like the 9/11 attack, this one will leave losses among our EMS workers. Losses in health. Losses in income. And some losses in life.”
Blumenthal says he’ll introduce his Pandemic Heroes Compensation Act when he returns to Washington after the Memorial Day weekend. He’s hoping to get bipartisan support for the bill.
The Democratic senator says he also supports the HEROES Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives recently and is now stalled in the U.S. Senate.
That act includes $200 billion in federal funding to reward, retain and recruit essential workers during the pandemic.
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