WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) issued the following statement after President Trump declared a national emergency to respond to coronavirus: 

“The health and well-being of the American people must be our top priority, and I applaud President Trump for declaring a national emergency to combat the coronavirus. This decision will provide the President with additional authorities and free up billions of dollars to respond to the pandemic and provide assistance to state and local governments. These will be valuable tools in addition to the $8.3 billion bipartisan package I supported that will be used to help develop a vaccine and make sure our states and communities are prepared to respond. It is vital that our nation’s leaders cast partisan politics aside and come together to confront this public health crisis. I will continue to work across the aisle on solutions, including pushing for more testing kit capacity for North Carolina and offering proposals to ensure our medical professionals have the supplies they need to keep North Carolinians and themselves safe and healthy.” 

Senator Tillis has worked to assist North Carolina’s response to coronavirus, including:

• Supporting the recent $8.3 billion package to respond to the coronavirus, which includes funding to assist with vaccine development and providing assistance to local and state governments. This includes more than $13 million for North Carolina for emergency preparedness.
• Sending a bipartisan letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging the administration to provide additional resources to increase testing capacity for coronavirus in North Carolina. 
• Co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to help ensure manufacturers and distributors can produce respirators during a health crises, such as the current COVID-19 epidemic. 
• Co-sponsoring legislation that would allow veterans on the GI Bill to continue receiving full benefits as universities move classes online to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There were more than 34,000 student veterans using their GI Bill benefits in North Carolina, including more than 6,000 in the UNC System, as of the 2017-2018 academic year.
• Sending a letter to Vice President Pence on efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus and the need for Congress to keep politics out of our nation’s prevention and response efforts. 

###