During her news briefing Thursday, Governor Laura Kelly mentioned support from Vice President Mike Pence in two different ways.
Coming off a phone call with the vice president shortly before her news conference, Kelly said Pence appreciated the state’s efforts to combat COVID-19.
The governor says Pence is pledging his work to spur FEMA action with the state making constant requests for equipment that haven’t been filled.
Governor Kelly also mentioned efforts to help the Department of Labor handle the crush of requests for unemployment information, with 1.6 million calls to the office Monday and 50,000 new unemployment claims last week. The governor had already announced plans to shift workers from other departments and a partnership with Amazon Web Services to handle the call load. On Thursday, Kelly said her team is working with the federal government to determine whether stimulus money can be used to upgrade the 40-year-old mainframe and other technology. A new phone system rolled out Thursday, and that has helped to streamline the process for callers.
