A growing number of Republican lawmakers across the country are pushing for a more rapid reboot of the American economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that the risk of spreading more sickness — and even death — is outweighed by the broader economic damage that widespread stay-at-home orders have wrought.
They are taking cues from and breathing energy into a grass-roots conservative movement of resistance against government-ordered quarantine measures — one that President Trump appeared to back in several tweets Friday — but are facing defiance within their own party from Republican congressional leaders, governors and fellow lawmakers who warn that a rash reopening could reinvigorate the virus’s spread.
But earlier that day, one of Kennedy’s colleagues — one of the most influential health-policy voices on Capitol Hill — sent a much more cautious message. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a senior appropriator, echoed public health officials in warning that the necessary testing infrastructure simply to allow for a wholesale loosening of restrictions has not been created.
“Without more tests with quick results, it will be difficult to contain this disease and give Americans confidence to go back to work and back to school,” Alexander said.