The Path Forward for Fighting COVID-19 and Healing Our Nation

Under unprecedented circumstances, and amid the worst pandemic in a century, Americans voted in record numbers and delivered a clear result: On Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States.
Once President-elect Biden takes office, he will immediately be forced to tackle some of the toughest crises any incoming President has confronted. He will need to quickly work to control a pandemic ravaging our nation, and restore the country’s struggling economy, ensuring shared prosperity and growth. Long-term issues persist as well, like improving and expanding health care and confronting climate change by investing in millions of new jobs in green energy and technology.

Joe Biden has made it clear that while he ran as a Democratic candidate, he’ll govern as an American President. Representing all Americans is essential for any President, but it will be all the more important as we confront the pandemic. In the months ahead, we must all do our part to facilitate national healing.

The first priority must be quickly gaining control of the pandemic, getting relief to workers, families and small businesses and getting the U.S. economy back on track. The virus is infecting more than 100,000 Americans every day and killing over a thousand a day. We must provide more testing and contact tracing and continue to seek new treatments. And we must provide a clear and science-based message to Americans about effective public health measures. It’s a matter of life and death.

Early data from vaccine trials is incredibly promising and, thanks to the dedication of scientists and researchers, we can take heart that there is a light at the end of the tunnel – a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine; in fact, more than one. But until vaccines are widely available, something that is unlikely to happen until the spring at the earliest, we all have to continue doing our part – wearing masks, social distancing, washing our hands and limiting nonessential travel and gatherings, especially as we enter the holiday season.

At the federal level, we will need to get long overdue assistance to states and cities on the frontlines of the pandemic, accelerate the production of protective gear for hospitals and essential workers, and ensure the states are prepared to rapidly deploy a vaccine when one has been thoroughly vetted and approved.
As this crisis stretches into its ninth month, I know millions of American families, workers and small business owners are struggling to get by and are looking to the federal government and Congress to get them the assistance they need – now.

In October, the House passed a smaller version of the Heroes Act to try and meet our Republican colleagues halfway on COVID relief negotiations. As the pandemic surges to new, horrifying levels of infection, the need for direct assistance is as clear as it’s ever been. It is my hope that my Republican colleagues in Congress are prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations so we can get Americans the help they need.

None of this should be partisan. We must all acknowledge that there cannot be a full economic recovery until we get the virus under control. There is no choice to be made between fighting the pandemic and improving the economy. They go hand-in-hand.

Although the nation has rejected another four years of Donald Trump, many of the forces that propelled his rise will remain long after he is gone, including a globalized economy, automation that has cost millions their jobs and a social media environment in which lies and hate travel far faster than truth or love.
In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said, that “we are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” We must extend our hand to our neighbors, across the nation and across the aisle, and seek common ground.

It will take all of us working together to address the challenges facing the country. And if we don’t set aside the personal attacks and inflammatory rhetoric that seeks to divide, we will be unable to solve the many crises we are facing at this moment in our history. America is a resilient nation and we have overcome much greater difficulties in the past. We will do so again.