By Braden Campbell

Law360 (March 30, 2020, 10:08 PM EDT) -- House Democrats will demand the federal government furnish health care workers with personal protective equipment and raise health industry safety standards in the next phase of the legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others said Monday.

The Democrats' plans for "phase four" of the government's COVID-19 response also include making treatment free, bolstering the nation's broadband networks and further expanding paid sick leave, the House speaker said in a press call.

"We must do more to help our helpers," Pelosi said.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, sketched out the broad strokes of her party's plans for the phase four bill in a call Monday with Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. 

Those plans include demanding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue a so-called emergency temporary standard to shield health care workers from the virus. The Occupational Safety and Health Act empowers the agency, which sets workplace safety rules, to establish emergency standards in certain industries where workers "are exposed to grave danger … from new hazards" and where stronger rules are "necessary to protect employees from such danger."

The spread of COVID-19 checks these boxes, Scott said in a late January letter urging Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to raise standards. He proposed legislation earlier this month to make OSHA adopt an emergency standard, but that plan didn't gain traction, nor did efforts to make the demand through the funding, relief and stimulus bills Congress has passed so far this month.

The virus has ravaged the health care industry in the areas it's hit, sickening thousands of workers in Italy and hundreds in just one New York City hospital, Scott said Monday, citing a recent New York Times report.

"We've taken unprecedented steps to slow the spread of this virus," Scott said. "This effort will not be successful if we lose health care capacity because our nurses, doctors and other medical staff are getting sick."

The next bill must also ensure hard-hit areas have the masks, ventilators and other items they need to combat the pandemic, Pallone said. And while these items are in short supply, the federal government could do a better job of distributing the national stockpile that it has, he said.

"Everyone tells me we need some kind of clear, national leader with expertise on health care supplies and the supply chain. … That's what we don't have," Pallone said, floating a possible mandate that the president appoint someone to oversee equipment distribution to the states.

The rapid shift from in-person to online work, education and health care also demands the country improve its wired and mobile broadband networks, the lawmakers said. 

Pelosi said Congress likely won't take up the planned bill until it reconvenes in late April but that her caucus will continue to develop plans over teleconference in the interim.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans will take their time with the phase four bill Tuesday in an interview with conservative radio pundit Hugh Hewitt. 

"We need to see what the effect of the current bill is," McConnell said when asked whether the Republicans will work with Democrats on the next legislation. The senator said he's "not going to allow this to be an opportunity for the Democrats to achieve unrelated policy items that they would not otherwise be able to pass."

--Editing by Aaron Pelc.

Update: This story has been updated with comments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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