Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have highlighted $2 billion in aid to help reimburse low-income families for funeral and burial expenses they doled out for loved ones that died from coronavirus over the past year, NBC News reported Tuesday.
"I lost my Dad when I was about 18 years old, and the funeral expenses haunted and followed my family – along with many other families in a similar position – for years,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a news conference in Queens, New York. "When you suddenly lose a loved one, you're talking about an expense of 4 or 5, 7, 10 thousand dollars."
Minority and low-income families have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic, which has resulted in higher levels of mortality and the ensuing funerals and burials, for which they do not have the money.
Ocasio-Cortez said, in addition to working-class families not having money for these services, many also have to pay for the storage of their loved ones' bodies until they can be buried, compounding the financial strain.
Funds to pay for such burials was included in the coronavirus relief bill signed into law in December. Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez are working to include more assistance in the emergency coronavirus relief package President Joe Biden has proposed to Congress, so similar aid will be available until the end of the pandemic.
Schumer said he and Ocasio-Cortez attempted to convince FEMA last year to provide funeral and burial assistance to families in the same way it did in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But he said, despite pleas to the White House last year, FEMA refused to do so.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.