More Covid Relief is Needed

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, as we stand here on October 1, a few hours ago the leadership of airline industries all across America announced very sad news for their workforce. The fact of the matter is that, with CARES Act money expiring at midnight last night, massive layoffs are now going to be implemented over the next few days and weeks.

American Airlines and United Airlines, together, about 32,000 workers are going to be laid off today, this morning. Again, other airlines are doing exactly the same thing.

The impact, the ripple effect in terms of the collapse of consumer demand because international air travel is virtually nonexistent, domestic air travel is way down and it is going to stay down for months to come, has resulted, again, in a ripple effect in the aerospace industry.

Raytheon Technologies up in New England, which is the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, announced 16,000 layoffs, again, because the commercial airline industry's demand is basically drying up.

Boeing industry announced 16,000 layoffs also because of the same reason. The commercial sector in terms of airline orders, again, has completely dried up.

They are not the only sector that are still struggling in this COVID recession. Talk to any restaurant owner in any district all across America, talk to anyone who is involved in the tourism destination.

Disney announced 23,000 layoffs on Monday, again, because of the collapse in visits because of the COVID pandemic.

In Connecticut, we have two large, Native-American casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan. They have started partial operations, but still, half their workforce, again, has not been recalled, again, because it is just not safe for people to have gatherings in large density.

Tuesday night, the President of the United States, before the American people, made the claim that: nothing to worry about; we are in a V-shaped recovery.

Well, tell that to the airline workers. Tell that to the people in the restaurant and hospitality sector. Tell that to the people in the tourism sector.

Again, all across America, 780,000 new unemployment claims yesterday across this country.

We are not in a V-shaped recovery. We have got a lot of businesses out there working their tails off to get back to work and to get normalcy back. But the fact of the matter is, as Jerome Powell, President Trump's own chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has said repeatedly: Until we get control of COVID, we are not going to have a sustained economic recovery that is going to bring back the jobs that, again, we have lost in the millions.

So here we are. We are on the verge, again, of another wave of job losses in this country. And the question of the day is whether Congress is going to step up like it did four times previously on a bipartisan basis to pass COVID relief? The CARES Act being, obviously, the biggest one back in March, which, again, the American people are desperate for us to move out on.

A couple of days ago, the Speaker released a package, which for the first time included a COVID relief extension for airline workers, which, again, would avoid the bloodbath that is going to happen in terms of jobs in the next few hours in this country.

Finally, we have seen the Secretary of the Treasury show up here at the building 130 days after we passed the Heroes Act to have a serious conversation about getting some COVID relief out there to, again, stabilize this economy.

We can do this. And I say that because we have done it four times already acting on a bipartisan basis.

What we have to do, though, is just sort of drop the happy talk about the fact that this virus, we are on the other side of it, nothing to worry about, V-shaped recovery.

It is really just almost insulting to the American people to spin that kind of message out there when people are struggling, having their unemployment benefits run out, their economic impact payments have long since been spent, they have got rent due, they have got utility bills due. They want to go back to work, but the fact of the matter is, we are still not there yet where we can have a sustained economic recovery.

Mr. Speaker, I plead with my colleagues on the other side, who, again, have whip notices going out to oppose any Heroes 2.0 or anything like it, to please just think about the success that we did back in March when we passed the CARES package, which to this day is still providing some benefit. Those new rapid tests that the President announced a couple of days ago, which is a wonderful development, was paid for by the CARES Act, but we need more.

And Jerome Powell has warned us repeatedly since May that the CARES Act was a great achievement by Congress, but we need to have more fiscal stimulus until we get past this pandemic.

Again, the clock is now ticking.

And, again, Mr. Speaker, for the sake of all of us and our fellow citizens, please let's come together and get a COVID relief bill passed this week.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source