‘The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective’ Launches with $10 Million Commitment to Promoting Inclusive Growth in 10 U.S. Cities
Commitment will support government, business, faith-based, nonprofit partners in each city with two goals: protecting communities from displacement and eliminating barriers to access capital and credit
NEW YORK | June 16, 2020 – Today, The Rockefeller Foundation announced the launch of The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective (ROC), which aims to catalyze public and private sector investment in places to promote more inclusive growth, both in the post-pandemic recovery and over the long term.
The Rockefeller Foundation has pledged an initial $10 million, which it will allocate to a collective of government, business, faith-based, and non-profit partners in 10 places over several years. In these 10 ROC places, the Foundation will invest in partners, projects, and programs with two core goals: protecting communities from displacement, and eliminating barriers to access capital and credit among low-wage workers and small businesses operated by women, black and Latinx owners.
“Black and Latinx small business owners receive only pennies out of every dollar the federal government lends to small businesses, and when life expectancy is more than 15 years lower in minority neighborhoods than wealthier neighborhoods in the same city, the American Dream is just that: a dream for far too many,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “Now is the time to target resources and spur greater investment in order to widen and fortify the pathway for economic mobility and stability in our communities.”
The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective will include the following 10 places: Atlanta, Ga.; Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; El Paso, Tex.; Miami Dade County, Fla.; Houston, Tex.; Louisville, Ky.; Newark, N.J.; Norfolk, Va.; and Oakland, Calif.
“The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective is an essential place-based approach to create economic equity for low-wage workers through structural and systemic change in 10 places across the United States,” said Otis Rolley III, Senior Vice President of the U.S. Equity and Economic Opportunity Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “The disproportionate economic toll on communities of color has historically stymied access to opportunity and been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s going to take a collective effort by local government and nonprofits and businesses to meet the moment and undo the racist economic inequities that have plagued these communities for decades.”
Negative or nonexistent credit information, cash constraints, and lack of availability of private capital and access to affordable financing are all components that limit a community’s economic development. These conditions also cause lost job opportunities, restrict housing options, and ultimately limit the goals of many low and middle-income families.
An estimated 26.5 million U.S. adults are not in the formal credit economy. Federal data show that 15% of Black and Hispanic Americans are credit invisible (compared to just 8% of White and Asian Americans). In the U.S., Black and Hispanic businesses receive only 2.5% and 5.8% of funding through the Small Business Administration.
To expand access to capital and credit, The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective will focus on efforts including loans and equity for people of color and women-led businesses, credit-building tools for small businesses, affordable borrowing for entrepreneurs, and capacity building, among others.
“Our team is committed to making places across the United States more equitable, and that starts by directly addressing the needs of millions of low-wage workers and providing a pathway to economic stability,” said Gregory Johnson, Director of Place-Based Innovation for the U.S. Equity and Economic Opportunity Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “This initiative will strengthen our efforts through innovation and collaboration and help dismantle the structures that prevent closing the economic opportunity gap that has limited the potential of so many communities.”
The $10 million commitment behind The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective is part of the Foundation’s comprehensive $65 million investment announced in February to help more than 10 million low-wage workers and their families across the United States meet their basic needs and pursue a more prosperous future.
Local leaders dedicated to promoting inclusive growth for their citizens:
• “This challenging moment in our history demands that we address persistent barriers that deny opportunity and chances for success. The City of Norfolk is extremely grateful for its continued partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation. As a part of the Opportunity Collective, we look forward to confronting chronic disparities in small business lending, taking down barriers to credit for Norfolk’s entrepreneurs and low wage workers, and aiding communities economically impacted by COVID-19.” ─ Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander
• “The Rockefeller Foundation’s generous commitment to working families, women, and minority-owned businesses in the City of Newark will be a significant contribution to Newark’s recovery in the wake of the coronavirus. Many of our residents and small businesses have been severely impacted by this pandemic, so this timely pledge will help enable Newark to regain its economic strength.” ─ Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka
• “We need to move to a new paradigm of community development; we need a new era of community wealth building. Minority residents and businesses in too many American cities have been deliberately left behind and ravaged by years of persistent and systemic racism. It is time to do better and step up to invest. We all need to do more – as government, as business, as individuals, and through philanthropy. I thank The Rockefeller Foundation for this investment and recognizing not only the work we have done but the important work ahead.” ─ Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer
• “Minority-owned businesses are the backbone of our economy, and our county’s long-term growth and resilience depend on their success. We are excited and honored to work with the Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective to create meaningful solutions that ensure working families have the access and support they need to thrive.” ─ Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez
• “With the continued support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s One Atlanta efforts will be a driving force promoting economic mobility and inclusive economic development for all Atlantans. We, Invest Atlanta, are excited to be a partner in the equity vision and an implementer for an affordable, resilient, and equitable city.” ─ Eloisa Klementich, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta, the City of Atlanta’s Economic Development Agency
• “I applaud The Rockefeller Foundation for this important and innovative pledge to our nation’s cities and urban centers during this most critical time. By drawing on the comprehensive resources of our communities, this visionary program will not only provide critical support to our neighborhoods devastated by the COVID-19 crisis, it will also help address the deeper, generational fissures of inequality across our cities. In addition to its own success, my hope is that the ROC will serve as a model for how we can come together to heal the pain that exists in our cities and bring historic systems of racism and injustice to an end once and for all.” ─ Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot
• “Small and local businesses are a crucial part of our community’s success, and we are very grateful to be selected to participate in the Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective. This program will help strengthen our region to allow our local businesses rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic.” ─ El Paso Mayor Dee Margo
• “Small businesses help define Oakland’s character, and through the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective, we will further advance our goal of inclusive equitable economic development to ensure all Oaklanders benefit from growth as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Breaking barriers to capital and credit for our most vulnerable business owners of color is an essential step in preserving our diverse merchant base.” ─ Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
• “Houston’s entrepreneurial spirit thrives in our innovators and minority and women-owned small businesses. Historically, many of these groups have not received the support, resources, or financial investment they need to flourish. I am pleased that Houston was selected to be part of The Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective. This will allow us to provide more tools to these deserving Houstonians. We will support their dreams and invest in our collective future.” ─ Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner
• “As we begin a phased reopening of our economy in Boston, it is important to put a concerted focus on lifting up our small businesses who are the lifeblood of our communities, and who we depend on as the backbone of our economy. We are honored to partner with the Rockefeller Foundation on this new initiative that puts equity at the heart of our collective recovery, and that bolsters the important work we do every day in supporting the small businesses that make our neighborhoods and city so special.” ─ Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh
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About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation advances new frontiers of science, data, and innovation to solve global challenges related to health, food, power, and economic mobility. As a science-driven philanthropy focused on building collaborative relationships with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation seeks to inspire and foster large-scale human impact that promotes the well-being of humanity throughout the world by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas, and conversations. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @RockefellerFdn.
Category: Hot Topics
DOD Awards $138 Million Contract, Enabling Prefilled Syringes for Future COVID-19 Vaccine
Statement attributed to Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Department of Defense spokesman:
“Today the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announce a $138 million contract with ApiJect Systems America for “Project Jumpstart” and “RAPID USA,” which together will dramatically expand U.S. production capability for domestically manufactured, medical-grade injection devices starting by October 2020.
Spearheaded by the DOD’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), in coordination with the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the contract will support “Jumpstart” to create a U.S.-based, high-speed supply chain for prefilled syringes beginning later this year by using well-established Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) aseptic plastics manufacturing technology, suitable for combatting COVID-19 when a safe and proven vaccine becomes available.
By immediately upgrading a sufficient number of existing domestic BFS facilities with installations of filling-line and technical improvements, “Jumpstart” will enable the manufacture of more than 100 million prefilled syringes for distribution across the United States by year-end 2020.
The contract also enables ApiJect Systems America to accelerate the launch of RAPID USA manufactured in new and permanent U.S.-based BFS facilities with the ultimate production goal of over 500 million prefilled syringes (doses) in 2021. This effort will be executed initially in Connecticut, South Carolina and Illinois, with potential expansion to other U.S.-based locations. RAPID will provide increased lifesaving capability against future national health emergencies that require population-scale vaccine administration on an urgent basis.
RAPID’s permanent fill-finish production capability will help significantly decrease the United States’ dependence on offshore supply chains and its reliance on older technologies with much longer production lead times. These supplies can be used if a successful SARS-COV-2 vaccine is oral or intranasal rather than injectable.”
Website resources:
Mandatory MRNA Vaccines are Coming We are moving to step 5. Mandated MRNA vaccines are coming.
https://www.henrymakow.com/2020/05/mandatory-vaccination.html
We are moving to step 5. Mandated MRNA vaccines are coming. The fear campaign of Covid has failed. People are not scared any longer of Covid, but that’s not the problem anymore and truthfully Covid never was.
The problem is now that Covid failed and you are seeing this chess game of totalitarian control unfold, let me tell you what is really coming. If this is a mandatory vaccine campaign and it gets rolled out rapidly, you better be aware, educated and terrified.
Globalists in the next 2-3 months will magically find the cure for Covid and roll it out in a mass vaccination campaign. This vaccine is MRNA vaccine. This roll out will come out very fast for two reasons. 1) so that you have no choice but to comply, your stuck in your house and you’ll beg for it to get out. 2) so the side effects are not revealed until the vaccine has been widely distributed.
Why is this relevant?
Well, MRNA virus carry the instruction to replicate and build its viral protein right away. It doesn’t require anything other than the host cell machinery to operate. In other words, it cuts down the manufacturing process significantly.
Why is that a problem? Well, MRNA has direct coding. It will do what they are programmed to do. In this case the RNA cause direct DNA mutation which leads to cancer, they can change your emotion, give you autoimmune diseases, autism, anything that it is programmed to do.
Possibly even worse.
There is no coronavirus vaccine and there never will be one. You think that you are getting a vaccine for immunity, when in reality it’s a trojan horse for something different. This is real. I never thought in my life this would ever be real. Just because we can manipulate biology in ways doesn’t mean we should. I left research biology for ethical reasons. Bioethics is a major problem. Data is falsified for the sake of rapid profits. I have personally witnessed it.
DOD, USAF Warfare Center to Build a 5G Network
A L E R T
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Release
May 28, 2020
DOD, USAF Warfare Center to Build a 5G Network
“Mobil” CELLULAR TOWERS – 5G Cellular Network
To incorporate human-machine interfaces, which go beyond simple graphic-user
interfaces and may include audio, gestures, augmented reality devices and
haptics that stimulate touch and motion.
Test Prototype Software at Nellis AFB, Nevada
Remember WE are the Enemy
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) and the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada have teamed to build a fifth-generation (5G) cellular network on Nellis as part of DOD’s development of 5G for both defense and civilian uses.
”The Defense Department recognizes 5G technology is vital to maintaining America’s military and economic advantages,” said Dr. Joseph Evans, DOD technical director for 5G and the lead for the department’s 5G development effort. ”We expect to start construction on the network at Nellis in July and have it fully operational in January of next year.”
The network will feature relocatable cell towers that can be set up and taken down in less than an hour.
These applications involve architectures that enable C2 operations under a variety of 5G network conditions. They may incorporate human-machine interfaces, which go beyond simple graphic-user interfaces and may include audio, gestures, augmented reality devices and haptics that stimulate touch and motion. Network Enhancement prototypes will build and test novel 5G features including network slicing to allow network operators to dedicate portions of their networks to specific uses and software-defined networking, which makes network control possible using software applications.
Testing at Nellis will start in January 2021 and continue in three 12-month phases.
Removal Flags By The Post Office
Removal Flags By The Post Office
In previous trips over the last few months, I noticed the black [POW/MIA] flag flying under the US and CA state flags.
I saw these three flags flying at the Capitol as recently as Monday, 5/11/2020.
USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding
However, I noticed yesterday that all three flags have been removed from the local post office. Are the post offices in fact closing in June?
https://fortune.com/2020/03/30/usps-postal-service-stimulus-package-no-funding-post-office-mail-delivery-could-shutter-june-coronavirus-relief-bill/
The USPS website does not mention an impending closure nor the removal of its flags.
Check out the backed up YouTubes on lrby.tv
https://lbry.tv/@StopTheCrime:d?page=1
As they get taken down off YouTube, you should still be able to find them here.
Operation Warp Speed a COVID Vaccine
https://www.biospace.com/article/operation-warp-speed-highlights-14-covid-19-vaccines/
Trump Administration’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ Zeroes in on 14 Possible COVID-19 Vaccines
President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed has a goal of making 100 million doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 available by November, 200 million by December and 300 million by January 2021. Operation Warp Speed has reduced a possible 93 vaccine programs to 14 top candidates, which they expect will be further narrowed to six or eight.
The Hill reports that the six or eight selected will go into clinical trials, where “health experts are looking to weed out faulty candidates and come out with three or four vaccines that clear final testing to be used by early 2021.”
“Can I say with 100% certainty? No,” said one of the officials. “There is a reasonable probability that one or more of these vaccines will be successful.”
President Trump had indicated he will be overseeing the program himself. However, at the agency level, Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, and Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense, are taking the lead.
Although a senior administration official is expected to be announced this week, Trump on Thursday, April 30, stated, “You know who is in charge of it? Honestly? I am.”
There are approximately 90 vaccine projects ongoing around the world. Currently the leaders appear to be the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, now backed by AstraZeneca, and U.S.-based Moderna, backed by the U.S. National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The Oxford group is launching a clinical trial in more than 6,000 people this month, with early data expected before June. Moderna is currently running its Phase I trial, which began dosing on March 16, with a second dosing started on March 23, with expansion into other sites at the end of the month, including in 60 adults over the age of 56, some in Seattle and Atlanta and Bethesda, Maryland.
The 14 chosen programs have not yet been identified.
Although both Moderna and Oxford have suggested they could get a vaccine available by September 2020, that’s a wildly optimistic timeline relying on everything going right. Although it seems likely Operation Warp Speed is including the Moderna trial, given the support by NIAID, there is no indication it is involved at any level with the Oxford group, which had indicated no agreements yet with U.S.-based biopharma organizations.
As The Washington Post wrote, the last time the U.S. government tried to dramatically accelerate a vaccine program, in 1976 for swine flu, it was “a fiasco.” Insurers and manufacturers were concerned about liability, causing Congress to pass a law waiving liability. One drug company manufactured two million doses with the wrong strain, and as the testing continued, more scientific problems emerged, including early studies showing it was not effective in children.
Eventually the vaccine was associated with cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, then by 94 reports of paralysis, which resulted in the entire program being shut down. Guillain-Barre syndrome is an autoimmune disorder affecting the nerves.
Luckily, the swine flu did not spread as expected. “Had it done so,” Max J. Skidmore wrote in his book, “Presidents, Pandemics, and Politics,” “the swine flu vaccination program would immediately have been reinstituted.”
The risk-benefit analysis, he suggests, with a relatively small number of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases compared to the risk from the flu, would have changed the calculus.
Operation Warp Speed is projected to cost billions of dollars with the Trump Administration seemingly signing a blank check, with funds coming from pre-existing government funds. Reportedly, no congressional approval is needed.
CBS News noted, “The officials didn’t guarantee that any vaccine that comes out of the program would be free to all Americans though they suggested that could be part of the return on the government’s investment as part of the public-private partnership.”
Officials also speculated that once a vaccine was available, it would go first to nursing home facilities, first responders and other individuals who interact often with the public.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s most recent paper, released on April 21st, ‘National Covid-19 Testing Action Plan: Pragmatic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities’
The Rockefeller Foundation’s most recent paper, released on April 21st, ‘National Covid-19 Testing Action Plan: Pragmatic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities’, in lock step with Bill Gates, the UN and the WHO with the message that the “only way back to normalcy” is with a Covid-19 vaccine, which includes a draconian plan to launch:
“A Covid Community Healthcare Corps so every American can easily get tested with privacy-centric contact tracing; a testing data commons and digital platform to track Covid-19 statuses, resources, and effective treatment protocols across states and be a clearinghouse for data on new technologies…
“At least 100,000 people and perhaps as many as 300,000 must be hired to undertake a vigorous campaign of test administration and contact tracing, and they must be supported by computer systems networked with regional and national viral datasets and as many electronic health records from local hospital systems as can be provided.”
Oregon Department of Health to Remove Children from Home if Parent Infected with COVID . . .
NEWSOPINIONPOLITICSSOCIAL-ISSUES
Oregon Department of Health to Remove Children From Home if Parent Infected With Coronavirus
By
JEFF MAPLES
–
POST TO HOT TOPS OREGON DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO REMOVE CHILDREN FROM HOME IF PARENT INFECTED WITH COVID . . .MAY
ALERT –
Oregon Department of Health to Remove Children from Home is Parent Infected with COVID
At the behest of the World Health Organization (WHO) executive director Michael Ryan, Oregon is slated to remove children from homes and place them in “substitute care” if parents are deemed “unable to support them.”
All countries are run by corporate governments that will go door-to-door looking for people infected with coronavirus and if found, “Now we need to go and look in families to find those people who may be sick, and remove them and isolate them.”
Oregon seems to be complying with these orders:
State and local “child welfare” departments have a history of mishandling child welfare cases and over-indulge in their power to forcibly separate children from their parents — and this will be no different. According to a document released and authorized by Lacey Andresen, the Deputy Director of Oregon’s Child Welfare & Practice Program, effective April 22, “a child will enter substitute care because their caregiver is infected with COVID-19.”
What constitutes “unable to support them” isn’t exactly spelled out, but if history repeats itself, this is nothing more than a power grab to remove children from their parents and place them in foster care systems overseen by the state — and once children are handed over to the state, it is an uphill battle to get them back.
Rockefeller Foundation – Failure of the American dream . . .
Rockefeller Foundation – Failure of the American dream . . .
The Rockefeller Foundation Commits $20 million in COVID-19 Assistance
The COVID–19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the failure of the American dream. … geared towards rapid tracking and predicting the direction of a pandemic and … governments trackhow they are responding and managing their response. … the world is better prepared to respond to future pandemics when they arise.
Families Facing Economic Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the failure of the American dream. Forty percent of Americans lack $400 in savings to address emergencies. Nearly 40 million Americans struggle with food insecurity, with 30 million schoolchildren across the country relying on school meals for sustenance twice a day.
Cities, Counties, States Could Declare “Bankruptcy”
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Cities, Counties, States Could Declare “Bankruptcy”
Resulting from the Globalist PLANdemic.
Keep in mind as you read this PLAN
we have included
the Global Bankruptcy PLAN in video format below . .
We are watching a well planned epic heist
by those in CONtrol of ALL of US
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States struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.
Pension funds have been gutted and many pension funds are NOT available. Bankruptcy due to Covid is a “perfect” scheme to wipe out employees funds that were stolen. Opposes Bailout of State Pensions
in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route.
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq_bfpAFOeQ&feature=youtu.be
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION to Create an Economically Unstable and Shock-Prone World Authoritarian
Controls – Criminals Thrive We ARE the Enemy and War has been Declared. Silent Weapons for a Quiet War
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-22/mcconnell-says-he-favors-allowing-states-to-declare-bankruptcy
McConnell Says He Favors Letting States Declare BankruptcySenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he favors allowing states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.
“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said Wednesday in response to a question on the syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”
The host cited states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.
“You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done to themselves with their pension programs,” he said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he was stunned by McConnell’s remarks, which he called “completely and utterly irresponsible.”
“He’s dead wrong. You have my word we won’t go bankrupt,” he said. Without cash to states, Murphy said, governors will be forced to “gut the living daylights out of every state of America,” slashing budgets and eliminating the services people need.
McConnell’s statements set up a conflict with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said on Bloomberg Television Wednesday that a “major package” of aid for state and local government will be in the next stimulus legislation considered by Congress.
McConnell may also find himself in conflict with President Donald Trump. The president said Tuesday after meeting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that states will need assistance. “And I think most Republicans agree too, and Democrats,” Trump said. “And that’s part of phase four.”
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said he blocked additional state and local aid in the latest relief package, which passed the Senate Tuesday and is set for a vote Thursday in the House.
“I said yesterday we’re going to push the pause button here, because I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” McConnell added.
Later, on Fox News, McConnell said that any state or local aid must be specifically linked to the pandemic and shouldn’t be viewed as an opportunity for “revenue replacement.”
“We’re not interested in solving their pension problems for them,” McConnell said. “We’re not interested in rescuing them from bad decisions they’ve made in the past. We’re not going to let them take advantage of this pandemic to solve a lot of problems that they created for themselves with bad decisions in the past.”
The idea of allowing states to file for bankruptcy was raised in the wake of the last recession. It drew widespread disdain from Wall Street investors, public employee unions and both Republican and Democratic governors, who said it would unsettle the bond market and cause even the most fiscally sound states to face higher interest rates because of the risk the debt could be wiped out in court.
It was also criticized by U.S. lawmakers of both parties during a House hearing that was convened to discuss it in 2011 and was swiftly dropped.
The idea has fans, however, including David Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School and a member of Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board.
“That’s amazing,” Skeel said about McConnell’s comments on possible bankruptcy for states. “This is a pretty strong signal that bankruptcy for states ought to be part of the policy debate.”
Skeel said bankruptcy “provides a way to distribute the sacrifice so that it’s shared by all constituencies.”
Others say it would violate the federalist system and the sovereignty of states set forth in the Constitution if they were allowed to pursue bankruptcy protection in federal court, where a judge and Congress could hold sway over a state’s fiscal affairs.
The National Governors Association has said states and municipalities will need at least $500 billion in aid to deal with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic as tax revenue falls and demand for services escalates.
McConnell said there should be a “fulsome” discussion among all Republican senators on whether and how to send more aid to state and local governments and what that money should be spent on.
That will be one of the focuses for the next round of stimulus spending that Congress will be taking up, and McConnell’s reluctance signals that negotiation could be the most difficult one so far.
No state has defaulted on its debts since the Great Depression, and even after the last recession, only a handful of cities went bankrupt because governments have broad ability to raise taxes.
The current economic contraction may leave states facing an even worse fiscal crisis than they did a decade ago, which has prompted growing calls for Congress to help them make up for the taxes lost by the nationwide shutdown.
The bond market, however, doesn’t appear to be pricing in much risk of defaults. While prices tumbled during a panicked sell-off last month, they’ve since rebounded, with returns roughly flat for the year.
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