Pittsburgh Among Cities Pleading For Pandemic Financial Relief

PITTSBURGH, PA — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has joined a bipartisan coalition of 284 mayors nationwide calling on Congress to act on pandemic and local government relief measures.

The local leaders, in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, wrote Congressional leaders to urge support of President Biden’s plan to provide direct financial relief to all cities and increasing support for America’s vaccination program.

Biden has put forward a comprehensive package of relief measures that includes $350 billion in direct aid to state and local governments. The letter from 284 mayors, including Pittsburgh's Bill Peduto, urges Congress to support the measures.

"American cities and our essential workers have been serving at the frontlines of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for nearly a year," the letter states. "We have been charged with executing herculean public health efforts and an unprecedented emergency response. Despite immense fiscal pressure, your local government partners oversaw those efforts, while trying to maintain essential services and increase our internal capacity to provide support for residents and businesses who have been crippled by a tanking economy.

"And yet, as the economic engines of our country, local governments will be relied upon to lead the long-term economic recovery our nation so desperately needs, even as, with few exceptions, cities have been largely left without direct federal assistance. The lack of adequate support has resulted in budget cuts, service reductions, and job losses. Sadly, nearly one million local government jobs have already been lost during the pandemic. Our essential workers deserve federal relief like any other sector."