Baker Stresses Federal Role in Pandemic Recovery Efforts

HYANNIS – Governor Charlie Baker recently stressed the importance of federal assistance as states and communities work hard to recover from the impacts brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“While hundreds of thousands of residents have returned to work over the past few months, there’s still way too many people out of work through no fault of their own,” said Baker. 

“The Commonwealth is still down 330,000 jobs from this time last year.”

The governor said that case numbers and hospitalizations are doing better than last spring, but communities are still hurting.

State finances, Baker said, also remain stretched and unpredictable, with the Fiscal Year 2022 budget plan built on projection down a billion dollars from original prediction from FY21.

Expenditures have focused on critical priorities including supporting healthcare and long term care providers, providing personal protective equipment to the public, economic development, and resources for local governments.

Baker said federal assistance has been critical during this challenging time, with much of the funds being used for needs such as addressing food insecurity across the state as well as unemployment.

The reopening and continued safe operation of schools has also relied on federal funding, said Baker. 

“As cities and states ramp up their recovery efforts, support from D.C. will continue to be a critical part of how we get from here to there,” said Baker. 

“The feds can play a huge role with respect to vaccinations, testing, school reopenings for both K-12 and higher education, food insecurity, housing, rental, energy and water assistance, small business support, and support for states, local governments and territorial governments as they do the hard work that’s going to be associated with trying to rebuild their economies and especially deal with the dramatic changes that have taken place.”

Baker said that as the coronavirus pandemic continues, it will be vital for states and communities to be able to find a predictable path forwards to getting the assistance that they require.

About Grady Culhane

Grady Culhane is a Cape Cod native from Eastham. He studied media communications at Cape Cod Community College and joined the CapeCod.com News Center in 2019.



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