“Cities are the economic engines of the nation and home to the workers who make those engines run.

This is what post-shutdown America will look like without a rescue plan for state and local governments.

While much of America is working from home and sheltering in place, “essential” workers – many of them state and municipal employees – literally are risking their lives to keep everyone else safe.

Since the first coronavirus rescue plan passed Congress in mid-March, there has been no direct aid made available to the vast majority of instead of seizing the opportunity to stimulate the nation’s economy by investing in the cities that are its engines, politicians in Washington are exploiting the crisis for partisan gain.

Make no mistake: politicizing aid for states and cities is life-threatening.