HUNTINGTON / CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – As we navigate the 10th month of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weight on American families’ shoulders is insurmountable.
On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke exclusively with Amanda Barren of WSAZ. We had the opportunity to ask her if help is coming – and when.
“In your case in West Virginia, one in seven families is describing your home as starving, one in six cannot pay rent and one in four small businesses is permanently closing or has already closed, so it’s a big problem West Virginia and across the country, ”said Harris. “And that is why the president and I are offering the American Rescue Plan.”
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) would put money in American’s bank accounts. It has the structure to help small businesses, money for the return of education and extension of the eviction and foreclosure moratorium.
It also has provisions for long-term unemployment.
As the vice president defends ARP, many people in our region feel that they are defending their jobs in the coal, oil and gas industries. This comes in the wake of executive orders signed by President Biden in connection with the energy sector that endanger traditional energy jobs.
We asked Harris about these workers’ retraining plans, something people have heard before, without much understanding.
“All skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring these skills to what we need to do in terms of recovering abandoned landmines; what we need to do to plug leaks from oil and gas wells; and, transferring these important skills to work that has not yet been done and needs to be done, ”said the vice president.
Harris says the country must act with a sense of urgency. That is why she continues to advocate for ARP approval. This, as legislation was introduced by House Republicans, including West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore-Capito, who on Thursday introduced the “2021 Act to protect our wealth of energy resources (POWER).” The POWER Act would prohibit president or his secretaries of the United States Department of Interior (DOI), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to block energy or mineral leases and allow on federal land and water without Congressional approval. Capito says the president’s order ends American jobs and attacks the oil and gas industries.
“Why should [oil, gas, and coal workers] Do you believe that this time will be different? Barren asked.
“The president made it very clear that there is no existing lease in terms of coal and what we are doing in terms of oil and coal and federal land. It’s about what we need to do going forward to create more jobs, ”said Harris. “The president is very sorry that when we think about saving our environment (…) When you talk to him about climate change, the first thing he talks about is job creation.”
The ARP includes benefits such as $ 1,400 stimulus checks for each person in a household and, among other things, would set up a national vaccination program.
“[ARP is] about opening schools safely, it’s about getting support for small businesses, getting help for families. Many people have been unemployed for almost a year now, ”said the vice president to WSAZ. “The President and I feel very strongly that these are the times when we are facing a crisis of unbelievable proportions [and] that the American people deserve their leaders to rise up and rise up for them ”.
West Virginia has led the country when it comes to getting gunshots. However, President Biden said earlier this week that the distribution of the vaccine would be based on a state’s population. West Virginia is a small state and has one of the oldest and most vulnerable populations.
Barren asked the vice president whether basing the distribution on a state’s population was fair, especially when small states like West Virginia are effectively vaccinating people.
“Our plan is to vaccinate everyone … Our plan was, and continues to be, that in the first 100 days of our administration, 100 million vaccinations are carried out. That’s why we have the ‘American Rescue Plan’, because we have more than 320 million people in our country, ”said the vice president to Barren. “It is also a matter of observing the rates of child poverty in our country that have stood out and have grown exponentially due to the fact that their parents are unemployed. [ARP] it is also to lift children out of poverty ”.
With viewers in our region overwhelmingly supporting the previous government, Thursday was also an opportunity for the vice president to reach voters whose ideological values differ. “Why should they trust you and the president?” Barren asked the vice president.
“Because we have faith in the American people,” the vice president told Barren. “We run as Democrats, but we are Americans and we will lead like Americans. We want our country to be strong, we want our country to be healthy, we want our children to prosper and this is the end result. That’s why we are doing this. We are here to support you and I am here in West Virginia talking to you because everyone is important, whether you voted for us or not. The election is over and now is the time to support the American people; lead, lift people up and say, ‘Hello, neighbor!’ We are all in this together. We are all in this together. “
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