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‘Unconscionable’ for Senate to adjourn

As our country faces historic challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent economic meltdown, and now a threat to the November elections due to the Trump administration’s attack on the U.S. Postal Service, we desperately need our elected officials to step up and exercise their mandated responsibility to promote the general welfare as stated in the preamble to our constitution.

It is unconscionable that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed the Senate to adjourn without enacting a COVID-19 relief package.

At the end of July, relief measures included in earlier COVID-19 relief bills expired, leaving millions of families with minimal or no income and many facing eviction.

This lack of action also means that state and local governments will experience budget shortfalls and may have to cut essential services. The proposals the president offered fall far short of what is needed. Only strong, decisive congressional action can provide what is needed at this time.

Indeed, this lack of action has affected many right here in central Pennsylvania, as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise at a rapid pace, and the economic impact has hit home with many of my family, friends, neighbors and myself with temporary layoffs, permanent layoffs and reduced work hours.

Many people right in our own backyard are fearful and unsure what the coming months will hold. This is, in fact, a crisis — a crisis that warrants immediate response from our elected government officials.

We claim to be a government of, by and for the people. The dismal response to the pandemic and economic fallout and now the attack on the Postal Service, an institution upon which millions depend and whose collapse threatens U.S. democracy itself, is a clarion call for bold government action.

Our U.S. senators, Pat Toomey and Bob Casey Jr., must return to Washington and do the job for which they were elected.

Area residents’ lives, our community and the life of our democracy depend on it.

Gregory A. McConnell

Altoona

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