In the News

EAST LONGMEADOW — U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal said Tuesday he expects to go back to Washington later this week and vote on a new $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, legislation he said he spent the weekend hashing out with the Trump administration while working in concert with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others.

The bill passed the Senate Tuesday afternoon.

“It’ll have more money for local hospitals,” Neal said during a brief news conference at the Cartamundi plant on Shaker Road in East Longmeadow.

The plant, in partnership with Hasbro, which is its biggest customer, is making clear plastic face shields as personal protective devices for health care workers, first responders and law enforcement.

Workers, about 25 of the hundreds who normally work at the plant, started last week and can make 50,000 plastic face shields per week for donation to hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Neal, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, said he and his fellow Democrats were pushing hard for the bill, the fourth coronavirus response spending package and a follow-up to a $2.2 trillion measure enacted in March.

According to The Washington Post, the new bill doesn’t include money for state and local governments — money Neal said is needed to restart the economy and plug holes in budgets.

The $484 billion package would increase funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by $310 billion, add $60 billion to a separate small business emergency grant and loan program and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program.

Testing, Neal said, is the key to building confidence and ending stay-at-home advisories.

He described the back-and-forth of the legislative process with Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"It, for me, was a window on how Congress should work," he said.

Neal said he and his fellow Democrats would ask for an item in the bill, and Mnuchin would say he had to call back in a half an hour. Then the shoe would be on the other foot as Democrats researched a Republican proposal.

"Because they have to check with staff, see, who have all these facts laid out in front of them," Neal said.

Neal also on Tuesday sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar requesting HHS change the way hospital funds are distributed. The federal government formula favors hospitals with a large Medicare population — mostly seniors. Neal wants the money divvied up according to Medicaid patient loads. Medicaid recipients are generally people with low incomes.

Massachusetts received nearly $1 billion from the initial disbursement, but Neal said the current distribution shortchanged many essential community hospitals that do not have a large Medicare fee-for-service revenue base, such as Holyoke Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center in Springfield. In the letter, Neal outlined how the state should be doing more testing than it is currently able to do to mitigate the risk of overwhelming the health care system.

“While the commonwealth has done a commendable job preparing for and managing resources in this incredibly difficult time, the state cannot backfill the excess costs and lost revenue that the COVID epidemic has caused,” Neal wrote. “Our Massachusetts providers are on the front lines of the fight. It is imperative that hospitals that treat the most vulnerable patients, Medicaid patients, cancer patients, and children with serious illnesses, have the resources they need to treat and care for Massachusetts patients expeditiously.”