“The Paycheck Protection Program was set up to help small businesses stay open during the coronavirus pandemic, but within two weeks that money was drained. Now efforts are underway in Congress to replenish the funds. Western Mass News spoke with Congressman Richard Neal today - who said this new package, under discussion in Washington, will not only help small businesses but also hospitals and expand coronavirus testing.”
Read More“Artenstein got in touch with US Representative Richard Neal, a Democrat whose district includes Springfield, and Neal said he was able to get the equipment released through a call to the US Department of Health and Human Services. ‘It was a tense period there for a few hours there,’ Neal, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, told the Globe. He said he relayed to federal officials that ‘there are a lot of lives that could be on the line because of this, and I wanted that equipment moved now.’”
Read More“Rep. Richard Neal said an agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate on the next coronavirus relief package is "imminent.” The veteran Massachusetts congressman spoke about the talks surrounding the fourth COVID-19 relief bill during a live appearance on WCVB's "On the Record" Sunday, which he made remotely from outside his Springfield home.”
Read More“Neal, D-Springfield, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said in a news release that he recognized the urgency of the situation and contacted the state to provide the test kits. ‘Phase One of the Coronavirus Relief Act was about testing, testing, testing,’ Neal said. ‘While it is imperative that the tests get into the hands of health care providers who need them most, we must not forget our most vulnerable populations as well.’”
Read More“‘Hospitals and other health care providers in Massachusetts are experiencing tremendous strain as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis and care for an influx of extremely sick patients,” said Congressman Neal. “This infusion of federal funds will help providers stay afloat during the unprecedented coronavirus emergency and get the resources they need to keep frontline health care workers safe. I’m proud to have been an author of the CARES Act, and I will continue to support our state’s health care providers as Congress crafts additional COVID-19 response legislation.’”
Read More“Americans who earn less than $99,000 a year can expect to receive stimulus checks from the federal government beginning Monday, Rep. Richard Neal said Thursday on Boston Public Radio. As Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Neal had significant influence over the language that was put into the stimulus bill.”
Read More“Community health centers in Massachusetts will receive more than $36.5 million to assist in combating the COVID-19 outbreak... Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield was one of the drafters of the legislation."With major stress on our healthcare system, our community health centers are more indispensable than ever,” said Neal, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman. “As an author of the CARES Act, I was able to work with my colleagues to ensure that the funding would be there to keep health centers running while hospitals are managing the worst COVID-19 cases."
Read More“Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are expressing their concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus at veterans’ homes. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and representatives Richard Neal and Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to Ryan Lilly, network director at the VA New England Healthcare System, expressing their concerns about the COVID-19 outbreaks at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, asking that more resources be obtained and deployed to mitigate the spread of the virus.”
Read More“With nearly 10 million Americans — 330,000 Massachusetts residents among them — filing for unemployment in the last two weeks, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal is asking why the U.S. Department of Labor has yet to distribute emergency administrative funding so states can process the claims.”
Read More“Five cities in the 1st Congressional District represented by US Rep Richard Neal are getting 4.8 million under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed last week in Washington.”
Read More“Congressman Richard Neal held a telephone town hall meeting on Tuesday afternoon to address the concerns of constituents about the COVID-19 crisis. He was joined by Dr. James Lederer, Chief Medical and Chief Quality Officer of Berkshire Health System.”
Read More“U.S. Rep Richard Neal on Tuesday called for accountability after revelation about a dozen deaths at the Soldier's Home in Holyoke with several linked to the coronavirus pandemic. During a telephone town hall, meanwhile, Neal reassured a woman whose husband lives in the state run facility that public officials are working to understand what happened there and what can be done to halt the outbreak.”
Read More“Rep Richard Neal is pushing for COVID-19 relief package checks to be issued to seniors and vulnerable groups automatically without needing to file any additional information with the federal government.”
Read More“U.S Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., plans a second telephone town hall to update folks on the coronavirus pandemic and the medical, as well as governmental, response… Neal's guest will be Dr. James Lederer of Berkshire Health System in Pittsfield. Callers will get a chance to ask questions of Neal and Lederer.”
Read More“The package of legislation cleared the Senate by unanimous vote and nearly unanimous in the House of Representatives. On Saturday, House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal, who represents Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District, spoke to the press, outlining the provisions in the bill.”
Read More“U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., one of the authors of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package passed and signed into law Friday, doesn’t like thinking of it as a stimulus bill. Instead, the Springfield Democrat described it during an interview with reporters Saturday as a relief and stabilization bill — a confidence boost in the face of what he now thinks of as an ‘economic contagion.’”
Read More“Baystate Health announced Monday that it has received federal approval to use its Holyoke laboratory for testing of the coronavirus, putting the health system a step closer to being able to produce same-day results for the disease… State and federal officials including U.S. Rep. Richard Neal are assisting the hospital to expand its access to needed supplies from manufacturers.
Read More“The coronavirus relief bill enacted this week in Washington included additional funding for school nutrition programs, according to Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal. The Democrat, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, said there is also a provision that waives certain eligibility rules so that more schools can give out free meals as high-poverty districts like Springfield are doing.”
Read More“Springfield schools feed 30,000 children breakfast and lunch every day, but only a fraction of those students are stopping at designated sites offering meals to students while classes remain closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. ‘We have 14 sites spread out across the city and have served about 825 families so far this week, although we expect that to increase,’ said Daniel Warwick, superintendent of the Springfield Public Schools. Warwick met with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., on Thursday afternoon to speak with Sodexo and school employees serving the food and families picking up the meals to go.”
Read More“Days after Gov. Charlie Baker submitted economic relief loans through the Small Business Administration, the Massachusetts congressional delegation sent a letter to the agency on Wednesday backing his call for emergency assistance as result of the coronavirus… U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey signed the letter, as well as U.S. Representatives Richard Neal, Jim McGovern, Stephen Lynch, Bill Keating, Joseph Kennedy III, Katherine Clark, Seth Moulton, Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan.”
Read More