3/23 note: We've added some additional bills since our 3/20 alert.

We have a public health crisis on our hands. Every day, the number of those infected by the new coronavirus COVID-19 rises.

We have an economic crisis on our hands. Workers risk going weeks, if not months, without a paycheck as businesses temporarily close.

We have a democratic crisis on our hands. We need to make sure that we can still hold free and fair elections while adhering to strict public health guidelines around social distancing and sanitization.

And these are compounding crises we were ALREADY facing, such as an inequality crisis that ripples across all aspects of society.

It's time for our Legislature to take action

✅Passing HD.4935 (Connolly-Honan): An Act Providing for a Moratorium on Evictions and Foreclosures During the COVID19 Emergency because, in a state of emergency in which people are being asked to stay at home, people need to have homes. Evictions and foreclosures exacerbate our public health crisis and strain our already weak safety net.

✅Passing legislation to provide immediate financial assistance to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic, such as HD.4945 (Gouveia): An Act providing for emergency cash assistance in response to COVID-19, HD.4951 (Decker): An Act to provide short-term relief for families in deep poverty, and HD.4950 (Miranda): An Act providing emergency access to equity and justice for all in response to COVID-19

✅Passing HD.4958 (Mark/Sabadosa): An Act relative to COVID-19 emergency unemployment expansion, which would ensure that independent contractors, sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, freelance, and tipped employees are eligible for unemployment benefits and that COVID-19 emergency assistance does not make any worker ineligible for receiving any existing state benefits

✅Passing Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation that guarantees all workers at least fifteen additional work-days (120 hours) of job-protected paid sick time for immediate use during the COVID-19 outbreak or any future public health emergency because no worker should be forced to choose between their health and their economic security

✅ Passing HD.4963 (Sabadosa): An Act regarding Decarceration and COVID-19, which would require the release of individuals who are currently in pre-trial detainment or under incarceration if they are a member of a population deemed especially vulnerable by the CDC, are eligible for medical parole, are almost finished with their sentence, or are only being detained due to inability to pay bail or due to minor violations of parole

✅Passing legislation to expand options to Vote by Mail (such as HD.4957 -- Mark/Sabadosa), so that no voter is forced to choose between their health and their right to participate in our democracy

✅Providing the necessary funding to ensure that our response does not leave vulnerable communities behind, such as our immigrant population or our homeless population.