2020年4月30日，纽约市，当USNS海军医院船“舒适号”离开曼哈顿西区返回弗吉尼亚州诺福克海军基地时，NYPD的成员向它致敬。吉纳·穆恩/盖蒂
参议院民主党人正在推进一项计划，为冠状病毒大流行的一线工作人员提供补充工资——这是他们英雄基金提案的一部分——因为共和党人同意该基金的可能性继续缩小。
在一份关于COVID-19影响的种族差异的新报告中，民主党人提出了一个多管齐下的方法来对抗这种疾病及其对有色人种社区的过度影响。
这种方法的核心是一个被称为危险津贴的概念，这是对从事危险工作的工人的额外补偿，如医务人员和急救人员。
民主党人提议设立英雄基金，为一线员工提供25，000美元奖金，相当于每小时13美元的加薪。这将从2020年1月底开始追溯。该基金还将向危机期间报名承担医疗保健责任的个人发放15，000美元。民主党人一直在推动这一薪酬，但收效甚微。
民主党少数党领袖、纽约州参议员查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)周四在一次新闻发布会上表示:“我们必须为英勇的有色人种前线工作者提供足够的支持和保护。”。“长久以来，有色人种不得不忍受深刻的结构性不平等...这种流行病以致命的方式加剧了这些差异。”
注意到少数民族在前线职业中的大量代表，民主党人强调了提供资金帮助抵消原有差异的重要性。
在长期以来一直是美国COVID-19疫情中心的纽约，黑人居民占人口的22%。但他们也占医疗保健劳动力的近三分之一。占该市人口29%的拉丁裔居民占清洁服务员工的60%。
这些职业，就其本质而言，独特地暴露于冠状病毒，使工人，尤其是有色人种群体，面临感染的风险。
非洲裔美国人和拉丁美洲人也是最不能够离家的人群。根据美国劳工统计局的数据，如果需要的话，不到五分之一的非洲裔美国人可以在家工作，大约16%的拉丁美洲人也可以这样做。
新泽西参议员科里·布克在新闻发布会上谈到需要解决与COVID-19相关的种族差异时说:“我们希望我们不要回归正常，因为正常并不能解决这些根深蒂固的不公正。”。
肯塔基州参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔和其他共和党人表达了担忧关于已经实施的刺激计划所累积的债务金额。如果没有一些相关的让步或额外的补偿，英雄们的提案不太可能在参议院获得通过，因为民主党在参议院占少数。
加利福尼亚州参议员卡马拉·哈里斯提出的另一项法案将建立一个特别工作组，收集关于COVID-19如何对某些社区产生过度影响的数据。她的法案还要求定期向国会报告COVID-19医疗保健统计数据的种族分类，如住院人数和死亡人数。
DEMOCRATS PROPOSE GIVING THOUSANDS IN 'HERO' PAY, INSURANCE BONUSES AS FIGHT OVER CASH HEATS UP IN SENATE
Members of the NYPD salute the USNS Naval Hospital Ship Comfort as it departs Manhattan's West Side to return to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on April 30, 2020, in New York City.
Senate Democrats are pressing forward with a plan to provide supplemental pay to front-line workers of the coronavirus pandemic—part of their Heroes Fund proposal—as the odds of Republicans' assent to the fund continue to narrow.
In a new report on racial disparities in the effects of COVID-19, Democrats laid out a multi-pronged approach to combatting the disease and its disproportionate impacts on communities of color.
Central to that approach is a concept known as hazard pay, additional compensation given to workers who perform risky duties, such as medical professionals and first responders.
Democrats proposed a bill to create a Heroes Fund that provides front-line workers with a $25,000 bonus, equivalent to a $13-per-hour pay bump. It would be made retroactive from the end of January 2020. The fund would also distribute $15,000 payments to individuals who sign up for healthcare responsibilities during the crisis. Democrats had been pushing for this pay with little success.
"We must provide adequate support and protections for the heroic front-line workers of color," Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on a press call Thursday. "For too long, communities of color have had to endure deep structural inequalities... The pandemic has heightened these disparities in a deadly fashion."
Noting the abundant representation of racial minorities in front-line occupations, Democrats have emphasized the importance of providing funds to help offset pre-existing disparities.
In New York, which has been the longtime epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, black residents constitute 22 percent of the population. But they also make up nearly one-third of the healthcare workforce. Latino residents, who are 29 percent of the city's population, make up 60 percent of cleaning service employees.
These professions are, by their nature, uniquely exposed to the coronavirus, placing workers, disproportionately communities of color, at risk of succumbing to transmission.
African Americans and Latinos are also the populations least able to from home. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than one in five African Americans can work from home if need be, and around 16 percent of Latinos are able to do the same.
"The hope here is that we do not go back to normal because normal does not address these deep-seated injustices," Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said on the press call about the need to address racial disparities related to COVID-19.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans have expressed concerns about the amount of debt being accrued by the enacted stimulus packages that have already been enacted. Without some related concessions or additional offsets, the Heroes proposal would be unlikely to clear the Senate, where Democrats are in the minority.
A separate bill introduced by Senator Kamala Harris of California would establish a task force that collects data on how COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting certain communities. Her bill would also require regular reporting to Congress on the racial breakdown of COVID-19 healthcare statistics, such as hospital admissions and deaths.
