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On Thursday, July 23, 2020, from 10:30 a.m. (ET) Full Committee Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry will host a hybrid hearing entitled, “The Heroes Act: Providing for a Strong Economic Recovery from COVID-19."
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Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be:

• The Honorable Shaun Donovan, former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and former Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget
• The Honorable Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen’s Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor
• Mr. John W. Rogers, Jr., Chairman, Co-CEO & Chief Investment Officer, Ariel Investments
• Dr. Steven Davis, Labor Economist, William H. Abbot Professor of International Business and Economics, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Overview
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the U.S. economy into a recession and experts indicate the crisis is getting worse. The daily number of new COVID-19 cases now exceeds 60,000 – higher than when the pandemic was at its peak. More than half of states are seeing increases in COVID-19 cases and on July 12, Florida reported the highest number of new cases in a single day by any state since the pandemic began and has since reported 4,982 deaths. As of July 20, 2020, there have been more than 3.8 million cases and at least 140,157 deaths in the U.S. In June, unemployment increased by 7.6 percent or 12 million, since February.5 1.5 million public sector employees have been laid off since March,6 and state governments are projected to face budget shortfalls of $615 billion over the next year. On May 15, 2020, the House passed H.R. 6800, the Heroes Act, a $3 trillion legislative response that contains numerous provisions that span the jurisdiction of several Committees.

Protecting First Responders and Essential Workers: The Defense Production Act
The Defense Production Act of 1950 (DPA) authorizes the Federal government to prioritize its procurement contracts, allocate scarce goods, and provide assistance to companies to produce critically needed supplies. During COVID-19, U.S. health workers have been forced to work with limited or sometimes no appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) and have been asked to reuse N95 masks. Testing production has faced bottlenecks, and both PPE and testing supplies are running low in the states that are now facing spikes in infections and hospitalizations. However, while the CARES Act appropriated $1 billion to boost production of medical supplies and equipment, the Defense Department has only spent $212 million. In contrast, governors have been calling for the President to use his authorities to address the spike by using the DPA to significantly increase testing supplies.

The Heroes Act would improve the DPA by: explicitly applying it to PPE, testing materials, and vaccines; deconflicting the DPA and federal efforts with those of state procurement efforts; requiring better planning to boost production of supplies and equipment; promoting better coordination between private sector actors and the U.S. government; and, improving the DPA to provide for future preparedness.

Protecting Renters, Homeowners, and People Experiencing Homeless
Renters and the Eviction Crisis. More than 36 percent of renters were unable to fully pay their rent at the beginning of July 2020, with 21 percent of renters unable to make any payment at all. As of July 8, more than 47 percent of renters reported that they were unemployed. Families receiving minimum monthly unemployment insurance plus the $600 provided by the CARES Act are still cost burdened in all but six states. The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project estimates that 19 to 23 million, or one in five renters in the U.S., will be at risk of eviction by the end of September 2020.

The CARES Act included an eviction moratorium and prohibition on late fees for nonpayment of rent or other charges until July 25, 2020 for “covered dwellings.” The CARES Act also included funding to make up for losses in HUD-assisted resident rent payments and provide additional resources to housing providers to respond to COVID-19. However, the CARES Act leaves a considerable portion of renters susceptible to eviction and does not help with accrued unpaid rent amounts. Further, the CARES Act did not provide support for USDA’s rural rental assistance programs. The Heroes Act would address these shortfalls by providing $100 billion for emergency rental assistance, funding for losses in rent payments for HUD and...

Hearing page: financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.a…