<p>April 30, Washington Post: “The next phase of relief is going to be the law of a lifetime.”</p><p>May 17, Pacific Group on Health: “Congress gets serious about COVID Phase 4 legislation.”</p><p>The first sentence of the initial opinion column above stated: “Congress will definitely pass a ‘Phase Four’ relief package simply because it must.”</p><p>Nearly six full months later, Washington — not just Congress — apparently didn’t get serious enough about helping Americans and the “must relief” turned into a universal “we can’t believe nothing has passed.”</p><p>Reasonable people might differ on the details. But reasonable people are elected and appointed to resolve such differences on behalf of our country. And there is no debating the many industries — and when we say industries, we’re really talking about people, jobs, families and livelihoods — that are suffering.</p><p>There is plenty of blame to go around. What should Indiana do? Unlike those in Washington, put partisan politics aside and provide assistance.</p><p>We will work at the state level to enact liability protections for the many businesses, health care facilities and schools that follow the rules, which was one of the unfulfilled federal promises. That’s a good start, but Washington owed us so much more.</p><p><p><strong>Kevin Brinegar</strong></p><p><p><strong>Indiana Chamber of Commerce</strong></p>
