WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) issued the following statement following a call with top Biden Administration officials and a bipartisan group of Senators on the need for legislation to support the American people during the coronavirus pandemic:

“Today’s meeting was a cordial, bipartisan conversation focused on identifying the best policies to support the American people during this crisis – which is notable and important on its own,” said Senator King. “I was pleased that there was an absolute consensus on the need to accelerate the nation’s vaccination efforts and bolster our testing and tracing infrastructure. In the days ahead, we will continue to engage with the Administration in order to receive additional data, which will inform future vaccine distribution plans as well as any additional legislative action.

“Most importantly, people left politics out of the conversation and focused on the substance. In fact, if an outside observer was listening to this call, I don’t think they would have been able to identify the participants’ party affiliations. We’ve got a ways to go, but this was a strong first step in the right direction.”

From the early days of this pandemic, Senator King has been vocal in calling for strong, bipartisan legislation to support Americans facing challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, he was among the bipartisan, bicameral group that devoted weeks of calls and meetings to create the framework of the year-end coronavirus relief negotiations.