Governors, mayors and front-line health care workers confronting rising numbers of critically ill coronavirus patients said Sunday they have not received meaningful amounts of federal aid, including the shipments of desperately needed masks and other emergency equipment that administration officials say they have already dispatched.
As the crisis spreads, the Senate was moving forward with a rare Sunday procedural vote despite a breakdown in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on a third coronavirus aid package. Among the points of contention: funding for hospitals and conditions on the billions of dollars that would flow to impacted corporations. The Senate wants to pass the bill containing both broad economic stimulus measures and direct help for American families as early as Monday.
Meanwhile, the pressure on hospitals in hard-hit areas is mounting, and several Democratic governors are demanding a more coordinated national response to get supplies as fast as possible to where they are needed most critically. But President Donald Trump hit back at the governors' televised pleas, tweeting Sunday that they "shouldn't be blaming the Federal Goverment for their own shortcomings." He told the governors the federal government's role is to be there "to back you up should you fail, and always will be!"
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