National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021--Conference

Floor Speech

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Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I am delighted to join with Senator Sanders in this important legislation.

It is very simple legislation, and this is, to my mind, a very simple proposition. Here is the proposition: that when it comes to COVID relief in the midst of this crisis, working families and working people should be first to get relief, not last. Their interests, their needs should be first on our to-do list, not last.

Now, I have heard some of my colleagues say that there just isn't enough left for working families; that once we take care of our other priorities in COVID relief, there just isn't enough left to give direct assistance to individuals.

I want to respectfully suggest that those priorities are exactly reversed. We should begin with the working people of this country, and that is why the legislation that Senator Sanders and I are introducing, which I believe every Senator voted for in March--it is simple legislation--$1,200 for each individual, $2,400 for a couple, and $500 for every dependent in the family. It is exactly what this Congress approved overwhelmingly back in March, and it was, indeed, a lifeline. I know it was for Missourians in my State, for working families in my State.

I remember, in the hours and days after Congress passed this in March, fielding call after call after call from friends, from people I didn't know in my State but whom I represent, who called me to say: First of all, is it really true? Are we actually going to be getting this support? And then just to say thank you.

And I said: Don't thank me. Thank you for being the ones who have built this country, the ones who sustain this country, the ones on whom this country depends.

And I will just say also, as a matter of fairness--if the U.S. Government is going to shut down your business, if it is going to tell you to go home for health reasons, if it is going to give you no choice in the matter, I think that there is an obligation to support and help the people who are affected, through no fault of their own. Let's be clear. The millions of Americans who are out of work because of this pandemic, they haven't done anything wrong. The 853,000 Americans who today, the new numbers tell us, filed for unemployment benefits, they are not at fault in this pandemic.

We want to support and stand with working individuals and working families. I want the working people of Missouri to know that they are first on the priority list, and when it comes to COVID relief, we will not leave this town until we have voted--up or down--until we have voted on direct relief for working people in my State, in Senator Sanders's State, and in every State in this Union.

With that, I thank Senator Sanders, and I yield back.

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