December 23, 2020
Trump to Congress: Fix This Bill!
This week was supposed to be a quiet one on Capitol Hill. However, it’s been nothing remotely close to “quiet.”
Washington’s lawmakers and the President spent last week negotiating the terms of two bills — one to fund the government and the other in the form of a COVID relief package. Together the bills made the Senate Amendment to H.R. 133 – Bipartisan-Bicameral Omnibus & COVID Relief Package. Republicans were able to “hold the line” on several policy points, especially in the funding portion of the bill. These included:
- $1.375 billion in new funding for the border wall
- A rejection of the Democrats’ efforts to defund the police
- Preserving the many pro-life protections and riders that are in current law like a prohibition of federal funds from being used to pay for abortions (with exceptions), protecting the Administration’s Title X Family Planning regulations, and maintaining the Hyde Amendment
- Ending surprise medical billing
And, some highlights of the $900 billion COVID portion of the legislation included:
- An extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
- Rescinding $429 billion in unused funds provided by the CARES Act for the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending facilities and ending these facilities to ensure that Democrats cannot use these funds to bail out mismanaged states
- $4 billion for substance abuse
- Another extension of unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks
- $600 direct payment for both adults and dependents
Unfortunately, members in the House were given about six hours to “read” the legislation before voting on it. Not that they could have if they wanted, it was nearly 5,500 pages long! Even the radical Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was upset with the lack of transparency prior to the vote. She tweeted:
Congress is expected to vote on the second largest bill in US history *today* – $2.5 trillion – and as of about 1pm, members don’t even have the legislative text of it yet.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 21, 2020
With over $2 trillion at stake, our Representatives and Senators should read the bill in its entirety prior to taking a position. To add to this, the legislation included a lot of pork that our government has no business funding. President Trump is even threatening a veto! He said:
“This bill contains $85 million for assistance to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma, $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment, $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan, $505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. $40 million for the Kennedy Center in D.C., which isn’t even open…”
He goes on to further list millions in waste! We encourage you to listen to the President’s update here.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2020
Lastly, President Trump told lawmakers to go back and increase the direct payments to individuals and families to $2,000 and $4,000 for couples and get rid of the wasteful items in the bill. While some Democrats, like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have been quick to jump on the increase in individual payments, time will only tell if we get a revised bill. To stay up to date on the Senate Amendment to H.R. 133 – Bipartisan-Bicameral Omnibus & COVID Relief Package, be sure to follow Eagle Forum on Twitter.
