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When the United States started 2020 with unemployment rates hitting record lows and markets hitting record highs, our economy was back and stronger than ever. This economic renaissance came to a screeching halt though when a virus spread across the globe through no fault of our own.

It was seemingly overnight that Main Streets across the country shuttered, entire nationwide industries were decimated and scores of hard-working Americans lost their livelihoods in the face of an uncertain economic future.

This unprecedented economic standstill resulted in a massive stimulus package, which included over $350 billion in assistance for small businesses, $100 billion in support for health care workers and hospitals and $150 billion for states, cities and localities for the battle against coronavirus.

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Right now, it is most urgent that congressional Democrats get their act together and say yes to approving vital small business funding that just ran dry. Simply put, if Congress doesn’t act, many small businesses across America will never reopen. Approximately half of our nation’s employees work for small businesses.

Looking forward, the federal government can’t bankroll our nation’s economy forever; not even close. We need to get our economy growing again, and we must do so precisely and carefully in an effort to avoid another outbreak.

Representing Long Island, one of the hardest-hit coronavirus hotspots in the country, it was an honor to be appointed by President Trump to his Opening Up America Again Congressional Group. This bipartisan group of representatives and senators, in conjunction with business leaders and medical professionals, must work hard together to help our nation bounce back in a big way.

In responding to the outbreak of coronavirus across the country, every level of government has worked together. Reopening our nation’s economy must be no different.

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The president’s framework for reopening the economy follows this successful approach as a hyper-localized roadmap that takes into account the vastly different economic and medical conditions each corner of our nation is in currently. It mitigates the risk of resurgence and protects our nation’s most vulnerable, by utilizing up-to-date data that will allow our economy to reopen smartly and precisely.

It utilizes measurable criteria and benchmarks, like area hospitals’ ability to treat patients and a continued decrease in documented coronavirus cases, to determine not only if a locality should begin reopening its economy, but if it should continue to do so. This gradual and deliberate approach based on the individual data of each area will help ensure every state, from New York to Wyoming, moves at its own pace.

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The lynchpin of this operation will be rapid, widespread diagnostic and antibody testing available to not only health care and other front line employees, but other Americans as well who are finally getting back to work.

Operating under this model, the bipartisan Opening Up America Again Congressional Group will join the president in not only keeping our nation healthy but resuscitating our nation’s recently robust economy. We will do so not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans, and we will ensure our nation emerges stronger than ever.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY REP. LEE ZELDIN