Rep. Maxine Waters shared that her sister is dying of coronavirus in a hospital in St Louis, Missouri.
“I’m going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri right now, infected by the coronavirus,” Waters said on the House floor ahead of a vote on a package worth more than $480 billion in COVID-19 response on April 23, CNN reported.
Waters used her time to support the already passed Paycheck Protection Program and the Health Care Enhancement Act, which was later signed into law on April 24. Under the act, $370 billion in funding would be provided for small business loans and $100 billion for hospitals and additional coronavirus testing.
Waters is a liberal Democrat from California who has served in Congress since 1991. She is the chairwoman of the influential House Financial Services Committee
Waters is not the only member of Congress who has had family inflicted with the virus. Fellow Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts shared that her brother passed away after testing positive for coronavirus.
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“What made him extra special was his smile — quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him,” Warren tweeted of her brother. “I’m grateful to the nurses and front-line staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time — and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close.”
“Both Warren and Waters have been particularly instrumental in ensuring that the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on the Black community remains at the forefront of legislative conversations,” Essence reported.
