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Committee hears support for HR 16 recognizing frontline health care workers' service during COVID-19
Summary
The House Committee on Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs took testimony on HR 16, a nonbinding resolution thanking health care workers for service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Witnesses recounted personal experiences and urged passage as a symbolic recognition.
Lawmakers heard public testimony in support of House Resolution 16, a nonbinding measure intended to recognize health care workers and other frontline responders for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporters described staffing shortages, fear and exhaustion among clinicians, long hours, and the emotional burden of patients dying separated from family members. Several former and current health care workers urged the committee to pass the resolution as a symbolic acknowledgment of sacrifice.
Representative Jack Flanagan, who introduced the resolution, said members of the public asked him to submit the resolution to provide a platform acknowledging how hard health care workers worked during the pandemic. “I think it’s important that we basically have ... a resolution from this body saying how much we thank them and how much we really appreciate the work that they did,” Flanagan said.
Former Representative Lynn Blankenbecker, who identified herself as an RN and a retired nurse, described working on the USNS Comfort in New York City, contracting COVID-19 while deployed and later working in a nursing home to help fill staffing shortages. “Those experiences have left indelible marks on our health care providers,” Blankenbecker told the committee, urging support for HR 16 as a “collective giant hug from the state of New Hampshire.”
Warner Horn, a former representative and sponsor of the idea, and Henry Gasson, who described National Guard deployment to assist hospitals and field hospitals, recounted similar hardships and staffing improvisation. Representative Ellen Reed said she supported the resolution and urged public recognition; she cited national and global health-care worker death tolls shared during testimony.
Witnesses emphasized the resolution is symbolic rather than a vehicle for benefits or policy changes. Several speakers said the public recognition was overdue and that the resolution would be a public acknowledgment of sacrifice. The committee closed the public hearing; there was no vote recorded during the session.
Where things stand: the committee heard multiple personal accounts in favor of HR 16 and closed the public hearing; the resolution is nonbinding and functions as a formal expression of appreciation if adopted.
