Providing for Consideration of H.R. Expanding Access to Sustainable Energy Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BACON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today and ask that we defeat the previous question and move to pass Congressman Chabot's bill.

We are now in our sixth month of this pandemic. In our efforts to combat this virus, the backbone of our economy, our small businesses, have suffered greatly. Only now, after months of government-imposed restrictions, is our economy starting to reopen and we are seeing the unemployment drop, in part, but not throughout our economy.

Even in my home State of Nebraska, with the lowest unemployment rate in the Nation, some of our small businesses are still struggling. While restaurants and bars are getting back to work, others are still shut down. Our live music venues, our playhouses, our travel and tour companies are still facing some very dark times and may not open for 3 months. Some may never reopen without Congressman Chabot's bill.

Congress needs to put our partisan differences aside. Stop playing election-year political games and come together to help the American people. While we may be divided on if we should bail out cities that were struggling financially prior to COVID, we can all agree that certain segments of our economy are struggling in every city.

This bill will help our Nation's smallest, most vulnerable businesses in every city. It will expand eligibility and expand the PPP throughout the end of the calendar year to help these businesses in every city.

We can agree that this is needed from the East Coast to the West Coast and everywhere in-between. Congress should act now.

I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and move to pass the low-hanging fruit of the Chabot bill.

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