HARRISBURG – On Monday Gov. Tom Wolf thanked Congress for providing relief to Pennsylvanians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor released the following statement:
“I am pleased that the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Package was signed into law. The COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread and painful economic consequences, in addition to the public health danger
“it poses, and this legislation provides necessary relief to Pennsylvanians in need. I thank our congressional lawmakers for their bipartisan efforts to see this bill become law.
“However, more needs to be done to truly foster a sustained economic recovery. The people and businesses hit hardest by this pandemic continue to struggle – including people who are unemployed, restaurant and bar owners and frontline workers. State and local governments are also desperately in need of aid to ensure that we can continue to provide the services our residents need.
“Congress should immediately begin planning for another round of COVID-19 relief – including direct aid to individuals, funding for state and local governments and dedicated support for the service industry.
“This aid is critical to support our efforts to rebuild a resilient economy – and we’ve all seen what happens when Congress waits until the last minute to get serious about providing relief.
“This bill and the support it will provide come only after months of advocacy from Americans asking their government to do more to support them. It wasn’t signed into law until after unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans.
“The American people can’t afford for their leaders to play games with their lives. We need another aid package – and we need Congress to start working on it now.”