Law and Legistation

Peer response: Length: A minimum of 150 words per post, not including references Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA per post from within the last 5 years Peer Post: One initiative that his especially important is the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES) fund that will provide a pay raise to essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic (Morrisin, 2020). This fund will first give money to those whose hourly rate is lower than those with a higher hourly rate. During these times, we need to keep our essential workers present in their jobs. It also is terrifying having to continually go to work, knowing that you are at increased risk of being exposed when others get to stay home. Both parties would have to agree on a hazard pay plan, hopefully by August for the HEROES fund because the Senate was going to be out for a month (Fay, 2020). It did reach the congressional floor, and the 1,815-page plan did go to vote and pass (Williams, 2020). At 3 trillion, it is the most expensive relief legislation in history. It encompasses pay for first-line workers, hazard pay for essential workers, extending unemployment protection, help with Covid-19 supplies, helping families pay for home utilities and mortgage/rent, and extension of employee retention tax credit (2020). The importance of hazard pay hits many of us very personally.  As a nurse currently working at Providence Reginal Medical Center, where we had one of the first documented Covid-19 patients, I can say not one of our nurses have received hazard pay for the care they provided. This is something that our union is currently actively working on for our nurses and other essential workers. Nurses and essential healthcare workers have been asked to send letters to our local state representatives, personalizing why we deserve hazard pay, which I have committed to write this week. I think it has been helpful having the union be able to reach all of our cell phones and supply us with links to directly send our response to the person in our government system that is on our side. The union has made it easy for us to respond collectively and personalize what we send and to whom it reaches. As nurses, we continue to care for those who need us during this pandemic and put those; we love at risk coming home at night. Both my husband and I work at the hospital. The pandemic has carried on for so long, and neither of us can see an end just yet. Collectively together as health care professionals, we are taking our concerns to our local Washington State government. Hopefully, this will result in our hospital and others having to provide us with the hazard so many healthcare providers deserve along with others in our community who go to work daily and increase their risks of getting sick.   References Fay, B. (2020, July 21). Updated Details on the HEROES Act: Stimulus Checks, Hazard Pay, Rental Aid, Etc. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://www.debt.org/2020/07/21/heroes-act/ Morrison, C. (2020, April 24). Legislation provides coronavirus ‘hazard pay’ for essential workers. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/legislation-provides-coronavirus-hazard-pay-for-essential-workers Williams, S. (2020, May 31). A Second Stimulus Bill Has Reached the Senate: Here Are 3 Reasons It Won’t Pass. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://www.fool.com/taxes/2020/05/31/a-second-stimulus-bill-has-reached-the-senate-here.aspx