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With congressional approval of the latest emergency pandemic measure sealed on Thursday, the focus is quickly shifting to an escalating battle over whether Congress will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to states staggering under the costs of the coronavirus outbreak. Anxious governors on the front lines of battling the pandemic have been clamoring for more federal help, saying their budgets are being stretched to the breaking point and their revenues are collapsing as they pour resources into health care while their economies are shut down. (Hulse, 4/23)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday derided Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that states whose finances are depleted by the coronavirus epidemic could declare bankruptcy as a “really dumb” idea and warned that financial markets would tank if that were allowed to happen. (Chiacu, 4/23)

From New Jersey to California, governors facing massive budget gaps said they were flabbergasted by the Kentucky Republican‘s assertion that Congress should refuse aid to cities and states in the next stimulus. "You want to see the market fall through the cellar?" Cuomo asked during a press conference in the New York state Capitol on Thursday. “Let New York State declare bankruptcy. Let Michigan declare bankruptcy. Let Illinois declare bankruptcy. Let California declare bankruptcy. You will see a collapse of this national economy." (Niedzwiadek, 4/23)