{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-pressley-ask-independent-watchdog-to-investigate-racial-inequity-in-pandemic-response", "Warren, Pressley Ask Independent Watchdog to Investigate Racial Inequity in Pandemic Response", "2020-12-04", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 04, 2020\n\t\t\t Warren, Pressley Ask Independent Watchdog to Investigate Racial Inequity in Pandemic Response \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t \"The health and economic effects of the pandemic have been especially severe in communities of color and Native communities, yet it is not clear whether federal relief resources have reached these communities in proportion to their need.\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Text\r\nof Letter Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)\r\nCommittee, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), a member of the House\r\nCommittee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to Gene L. Dodaro, U.S.\r\nComptroller General, requesting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report\r\non how COVID-19 relief funds have been distributed to disproportionately\r\naffected communities. The request seeks to examine how much federal COVID-19\r\nrelief funding went to businesses and providers located in low-income and\r\nmedically underserved communities, as well as Tribal businesses and health care\r\nproviders, community health centers, and other organizations serving high-need\r\npopulations. \"The health and economic effects of the pandemic have been especially\r\nsevere in communities of color and Native communities, yet it is not clear\r\nwhether federal relief resources have reached these communities in proportion\r\nto their need. We, therefore, request an evaluation of supplemental\r\nappropriations provided under COVID-19 relief laws, including the Coronavirus\r\nAid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, with regard to how funds have been\r\ndistributed to disproportionately affected communities,\" wrote the\r\nlawmakers. The coronavirus pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on communities of\r\ncolor and Native communities. Black, Hispanic/Latino, and American\r\nIndian/Alaska Native people are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at higher\r\nrates and are dying from COVID-19 at younger ages.\r\nPeople living on tribal reservations are more\r\nthan four times as likely to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as the U.S.\r\npopulation as a whole. The same communities have also been hit hardest by the\r\neconomic fallout: every month since the economic crisis began in March 2020,\r\nBlack and Latino workers have had significantly\r\nhigher unemployment rates than white workers, even after adjusting for age\r\nand education status. To date, the federal government has spent trillions of dollars to sustain\r\nour health system and mitigate the economic fallout during this public health\r\nemergency. However, it is not clear whether that relief has successfully\r\nreached the communities that are most in need. A survey of Black and Latino\r\nbusiness owners found\r\nthat only 12% of those who applied for a loan from the Paycheck Protection\r\nProgram were approved for the full amount, and half expected their businesses\r\nto permanently close within six months. In health care, a study of the Provider Relief Fund found that hospitals with\r\nthe most revenue from private insurance received more\r\nthan twice as much funding per hospital bed as the hospitals with the least\r\nprivate insurance revenue - raising the question of whether funds truly reached\r\nhealth care providers serving communities that are most in need. COVID-19\r\ntesting may also be harder to obtain for people of color: one\r\nanalysis found that testing sites located in predominantly Black and\r\nHispanic neighborhoods of major cities face higher demand than those in\r\npredominantly white areas of those same cities, leading to longer wait times.\r\nIndependent analyses\r\nhave found that ZIP codes with large white populations have had more\r\ntesting sites throughout the pandemic than ZIP codes with more people of color,\r\nand 35 percent of rural Black Americans live in a \"highly vulnerable\r\ntesting desert.\" Since the beginning of the pandemic, Senator Warren has been pushing for\r\nhealth equity in the federal pandemic response and for transparent information\r\non racial equity. \r\n At\r\n     the request of Senator Warren, the Centers for Disease Control and\r\n     Prevention has included an age-adjustment in its official COVID-19 race\r\n     and ethnicity mortality risk data. This change reflects that Black,\r\n     Latino, and Native Americans are dying of COVID-19 at a higher rate compared\r\n     to white Americans than they previously reported.\r\n  \r\n In August, Senator Warren and Congresswoman Pressley\r\n     introduced bicameral legislation, the\r\n     Corrections Data Transparency Act, to require the Federal Bureau of\r\n     Prisons, the United States Marshals Service, and state governments to\r\n     collect and publicly report detailed data about COVID-19 in federal,\r\n     state, and local correctional facilities.\r\n  \r\n Senator Warren and Congresswoman Pressley introduced\r\n     the bicameral Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act to\r\n     require the federal government to collect and report coronavirus\r\n     demographic data on race and ethnicity.\r\n  \r\n In March, the lawmakers wrote\r\n     to Health & Human Services Secretary Azar urging the agency to collect\r\n     racial and ethnic demographic data on COVID-19 testing and\r\n     treatment.\r\n ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-pressley-ask-independent-watchdog-to-investigate-racial-inequity-in-pandemic-response"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0829171407967806, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}