Ron Estes: Congress has provided assistance to safely reopen Kansas

Across our state, Kansans are resuming normal activities as we begin to recover from the devastating toll that COVID-19 has taken on our communities.

Defeating and recovering from this pandemic will take time, careful planning and hard choices. The coronavirus has affected all of our lives — especially health care workers, farmers and ranchers, first responders, business owners, students, and parents — and we’re all in this together.

In Congress, we’ve already passed four bipartisan bills providing substantial assistance to Kansans. Some of those funds have been in personal, small business and state accounts for over a month, with more still on the way.

During the first and second rounds of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), more than 47,000 Kansas small businesses received over $5.1 billion in the form of forgivable loans. The Joint Economic Committee estimates that 427,000 Kansans will be able to keep their jobs because of PPP. In addition, Kansans have received $2,359,448,490 in the form of direct Economic Impact Payments.

Last week, the Trump administration approved an additional $81 million for testing in Kansas. This follows $325 million in aid to Kansas hospitals, $220 million for Medicaid, $15 million for community health centers and $49 million for public universities from the Higher Education Relief Fund. More funding is on its way through other federal agencies.

All of this is in addition to the state of Kansas receiving $1.25 billion in direct assistance. Thankfully, Sedgwick County was able to receive nearly $100 million of that amount, and County Commissioners are working diligently to develop a plan to utilize this funding to help our community begin to recover.

However, the National League of Cities reported this week that “thirty-two states including Kansas are withholding funding from most municipal governments, including all small and rural municipalities, with no indication when, or if, funds will ever be made available.”

Congress clearly intended for states to share this relief funding with local governments. Gov. Laura Kelly and her administration need to allocate these funds quickly and appropriately. Kansans are hurting and this support needs to get to local communities as soon as possible.

Also, Congress provided an additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits, and the Kansas Department of Labor received $9.5 million for administrative costs through the CARES Act. However, Kansas lags behind other states in disbursing the payments to unemployed Kansans. Some payments are now being made, but as The Wichita Eagle recently reported, James Washington, an army contractor at Fort Leavenworth who has lost thousands of dollars of income, made 103 unsuccessful phone calls to the Kansas Department of Labor.

Yet as Kansans are spending literally hours of their time on hold waiting for assistance during this challenging time, some in Congress are calling on the Sunflower State to send even more money to Washington to bail out other states and finance a partisan wish list.

Last week, I voted against a partisan $3 trillion spending bill designed to advance election-year priorities for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats rather than COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts. The wish list included bailout funds for other states like California and Illinois that have poorly managed their budgets as well as stimulus checks for illegal aliens, environmental justice grants and pension bailouts. Not a single member of the Kansas federal delegation, Democrat or Republican, supported the bill.

Kansas has already received an enormous amount of federal help and I’ll continue to fight to provide needed assistance while also protecting taxpayers. Before Kansans are asked to do more, our state needs to help distribute what’s already been delivered, and Congress needs to take steps to live within its means. The only way forward is by working together to safely reopen our state and country.