OCTOBER 15 • 2020 | 17

Significantly, 14% of the 
population of Michigan is 
African American; yet, they 
had over 40% of the deaths. 
Clearly, we needed to put 
more resources into those 
communities that were 
impacted.

JN: What can the Senate 
do about the COVID-19 
pandemic?
PETERS: As the ranking 
member on Homeland 
Security Committee, I 
oversee FEMA, the federal 
emergency management 
folks who’
ve been assigned 
the response to the COVID 
crisis. And I have been push-
ing them aggressively to have 
a more coordinated federal 
response.
And, yet, we have a presi-
dent who said to the gover-
nors you’
re all on your own. 
Back in March and April, 
Michigan was one of the 
hotspots, and it was a strug-
gle to get personal protection 
equipment to protect our 
healthcare providers. The 
national stockpile was clearly 
not sufficient to deal with the 
magnitude of the problem at 
that time.
That’
s why you need a 
national policy to deal with 
it and understand that state 
lines don’
t matter.
Last year, before the pan-
demic, I put out a report 
from the Homeland Security 
Committee because I saw 
our over-reliance on foreign 
supplies of critical medical 
supplies as a homeland secu-
rity issue.
Basically, I said, when 
there is a pandemic in the 
United States, we are going to 
be in a precarious situation. 
Little did I know it’
d be a few 

months later, and here we 
are. We need to bring back 
that production from China 
and other places and have it 
in the United States and treat 
it like we treat war material.

JN: What can the Senate do 
to ensure Americans that 
their votes are going to be 
counted and that this is 
going to be a free and fair 
election?
PETERS: Regarding possible 
cyber attacks, I’
ll say, here in 
Michigan, our secretary of 
state has been certainly on it 
and has been working with 
folks from the Department of 
Homeland Security to make 
sure that there are no vul-
nerabilities when it comes to 
that area. 
Where I’
m more con-
cerned are the disinforma-
tion campaigns that we’
re 
likely to see from foreign 
countries, the Russians in 
particular.
Regarding absentee bal-
lots, I want to make sure the 
mail is delivered in a timely 
fashion. I am overseeing the 
postal service and called out 
the new postmaster general 
when he put policies in place 
that had the impact of slow-
ing mail down.
We found, starting in 
mid-July through the period 
when these new policies were 
put in place, on-time mail 
delivery dropped significant-
ly in the Detroit area.
As a result of public 
pressure and as a result 
of the pressure that I put 
on with my colleagues, he 
has since suspended those 
policies. So, hopefully, that 
will mean on-time delivery 
will increase. It’
s starting to 
increase now. 

When 
i
t 
comes 
to 
seni
or 
li
vi
ng,
 
there’
s 
no 
safer
,
 

smarter 
place 
to 
be 
than 
at 
an 
Eri
ckson 
Li
vi
ng®-

managed 
communi
ty 
li
ke 
Fox 
Run 
i
n 
Novi
.
 
Enj
oy 

i
ndependent 
seni
or 
li
vi
ng,
 
plus 
a 
safety 
net 
of 

addi
ti
onal 
support 
should 
you 
ever 
need 
i
t.

•
Feel 
safe 
and 
secure 
i
n 
a 
communi
ty 
of 

fri
ends,
 
nei
ghbors,
 
and 
cari
ng 
staff.

•
Our 
full-ti
me 
provi
ders 
are 
avai
lable 
f
or 

telehealth 
appoi
ntments 
and 
even 
house 
calls.
 

•
You 
can 
rely 
on 
the 
experti
se 
and 
financi
al 

strength 
of 
Eri
ckson 
Li
vi
ng,
 
a 
nati
onal 
leader 

i
n 
seni
or 
li
vi
ng.

You 
can 
feel
 

safe 
and 
confident

at 
Fox 
Run.

“

“

Our 
move 
to 
our 
Eri
ckson 

Li
vi
ng 
communi
ty 
was 
the 

best 
move 
we 
ever 
made!

–Carol 
B.
,

 a communi
t
y r
esi
dent

Learn 
more. 
Cal
l
 
1-800-917-8169 

for 
your 
FREE 
brochure. 

14263171-DJN

Novi | FoxRunNovi.com