Rep. Raul Ruiz discusses new stimulus package and possible reopening
Congressman Raul Ruiz spoke with News Channel 3 anchor Karen Devine ahead of his trip back to Washington D.C. on Wednesday.
The House is set to debate and vote on the "Heroes Act," a new proposed coronavirus stimulus package. The measure includes funding to state and local governments, hazard pay for frontline health care workers, and additional direct payments for many Americans.
"The focus is to help our frontline workers and families once again so another words families will get a stimulus check for $1,200 per individual up to $6,000 a family. There is increasing in the duration of the unemployment insurance expansion the $600 per week that will last until January," Ruiz said. "There is also more support for small businesses, $75 billion dollars will go to contact tracing and help set up being containment strategies that are needed to help keep businesses open to protect our communities once they're open as well."
Ruiz says the measure will also provide $1 trillion in payments to states and local cities, this time they hope to include cities with populations less than 500,000.
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Ruiz was asked about Dr. Fauci's concerns that the country is opening back up too soon. Ruiz says he agrees with Dr. Fauci and believes there needs to be more safeguards in place before all businesses can reopen.
"I think there's a right way to open our businesses at the right time and place that will not only save lives but also make out business community safe and resilient and keep our businesses open, Ruiz said. "The wrong is to prematurely open the economy without the safegaurds which will only hurts our businesses and our economy even further because surge intervention will close them back down and, as you know, that can hurt our frontline workers and our businesses."
Dr. Fauci told Senators on Tuesday that there will be more widely available testing, and possibly even a vaccine, by the fall. Ruiz says it would be a record-pace if there is a vaccine by winter, however, he does trust Dr. Fauci's projections.
"I am cautiously optimistic that we would have a vaccine by this winter. Most projections are showing a year from now into 2021 but Dr. Fauci is there on the frontlines. He's the director of the National Institute of Health," Ruiz said.
