By Allison Stevens | Arizona Mirror
Arizona lawmakers are calling on Congress to prioritize rural Americans in the next round of coronavirus legislation.
The pandemic has widened America’s “urban-rural divide,” according to Rep. Tom O’Halleran, a Democrat who represents the sprawling 1st District in the eastern half of the state. If Congress doesn’t take drastic steps to support rural Americans, it will “once again leave rural Arizona, and rural America, behind,” he wrote in a recent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego agreed.
“There still has to be a lot more done in order to help rural America,” he told Arizona Mirror Tuesday.
Media coverage of the pandemic has focused on urban hotspots like New York City, New Orleans and Seattle. But the virus is increasingly affecting rural America — and the resources aren’t in place to address it, O’Halleran told the Mirror.
