Governors Urge Congress to Avoid Turning Coronavirus Relief Into ‘Another Political Football’

A bipartisan group of governors is calling on Congress to pass another round of coronavirus relief.

“As Congress reconvenes, delivering urgent state fiscal relief must be a top priority,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), the chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) the co-chair of the NGA wrote in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The statement continued, “Each day that Congress fails to act, states are being forced to make cuts that will devastate the essential services the American people rely on and destroy the economic recovery before it even gets off the ground.

The governors urged Congress to act on the “bipartisan agreement on the need for this assistance” and pass another round of coronavirus relief.

“We cannot afford a partisan process that turns this urgent relief into another political football. This is not a red state and blue state crisis. This is a red white and blue pandemic. The coronavirus is apolitical. It does not attack Democrats or Republicans. It attacks Americans.”

Hogan and Cuomo also asked that Congress provide $500 billion to help states facing budget shortfalls as a result of shutdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

Cuomo has been vociferous in his calls for federal assistance for his state. During a press conference on Tuesday, he said the state needs $61 billion