Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez teamed up in New York on Monday to put $ 2 billion into special funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help families who couldn’t afford proper burials for loved ones when they died. as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Each family can be reimbursed up to $ 7,000 for funeral expenses, with $ 260 million of these funds allocated directly to New Yorkers. These funds are retroactive and can be applied to anyone who has lost a loved one as a result of the pandemic from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.
While this first set of funding is retroactive, both Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez are fighting for these funds to continue until the pandemic ends in the next set of funding coming from FEMA.
“Many of these families because of Covid do not have the money for a funeral and a proper funeral. And it’s just awful and inhuman, “Schumer said of the funding.
Ocasio-Cortez made the personal issue by saying: “I lost my father when I was about 18 years old. And the funeral expenses haunted and followed my family along with many other families in a similar position for years. ”
Later, when asked if these funds would apply to undocumented families, Ocasio-Cortez said yes and explained why those communities should not be afraid to apply for these funds.
“I think it is completely understandable why they are afraid there, especially in the last four years, of targeting our immigrant families. But I believe that at this time our families, especially under the Biden administration, a democratic senate and a democratic house that gives priority to the rights of immigrants, including those who are undocumented, not to be afraid and not to allow that fear to marginalize us even more. community, ”said Ocasio-Cortez.
Schumer said Ocasio-Cortez brought this issue to his attention last April. These disaster relief funds are similar to the FEMA program created for families after Hurricane Sandy.
The press conference was held in Queens, New York, an area particularly hard hit by the pandemic, highlighting how disproportionate communities of color, working class families and immigrant communities were affected.