Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I thank him for his masterful work in not only bringing this legislation to the floor but working in a bipartisan way to have so many important initiatives in the COVID and the omnibus bill that the President happily, for us, signed last evening. I thank him for his initiatives that are job-creating, that stimulate the economy and help meet the needs of the American people.

Madam Speaker, I am interested in the comments made by Mr. Brady because he said we could be putting more money into small business, and we do indeed in the COVID package, around $300 billion. I think it is important to note, Madam Speaker, that that brings it to almost about a trillion dollars since March 27 or 28, when the President signed the CARES Act, about $950 billion for small business, nearly a trillion dollars. Very important.

Small business is the heart of our economy. What could be more optimistic for anyone to do but to follow their dreams, start a small business, create jobs, create wealth, create capital. It is so important. We see the importance of that to the tune of about a trillion dollars, just under a trillion dollars, in these past several months.

Madam Speaker, if you want to talk about job creation, I hope the gentleman will join us when we go forward to do State and local, our healthcare workers, honoring our heroes. They are at risk of losing their jobs. While they risk their lives to save lives, they may lose their jobs, and over a million of them have.

We are talking about healthcare workers. We are talking about police and fire, our first responders. We are talking about transportation, sanitation, food workers. We are talking about our teachers, our teachers, our teachers, the custodians of our children for a large part of their day.

They are at risk of losing their jobs because of the failure of the Republican side of the aisle to support funds for State and local government to honor our heroes. We want to honor them. While we cheer them, we applaud them, let's give them pay, and let's let them have job security. Let's give them PPE, the equipment that they need to do their job.

If we want to talk about saving jobs or growing jobs for the purpose that the distinguished gentleman from Texas mentioned, how are we going to focus on the distribution and the administration of the vaccine? Where do you think that happens but in city, county, and State hospitals, in large measure, by healthcare workers in those places, wherever it is distributed on an individual basis? They are the heart of the matter.

That is why we need to go forward with another bill that invests in our State and local governments, not to talk about government, but to talk about services, healthcare services, education, transportation, making our lives possible, making our very existence possible by what they do. Without them, how do we function?

Again, let's create jobs, let's save jobs, let's grow jobs by administering this vaccine as fairly and as equitably as possible, and free to everyone in our country, because unless all of us are protected, none of us are protected.

This $2,000, which I thank you for bringing it to the floor on Christmas Eve, was roundly rejected by Republicans. We asked for unanimous consent. This could already exist as a law if that had happened, but it didn't. So, now, today, we have another chance.

Some of the Republicans said: Oh, if they really wanted that, they would have called for a vote that day.

That wasn't true. It is important to note that was a pro forma session, and you had to have the consent of the Republicans to bring the bill to the floor. They withheld their consent.

So, here we are today, in a legislative day where we just act with the majority to bring the legislation to the floor.

Madam Speaker, I hope it will enjoy strong bipartisan support. The President of the United States has put this forth as something that he wants to see, in part of his signing the legislation yesterday. I hope that that view will be shared by the Republicans in the Senate because we will pass this bill today, either under suspension or under a rule, where it just requires a majority vote.

Under suspension, a two-thirds vote requires a large number of Republican votes, which I hope we will have because I do think that the American people would love to see that unity on their behalf.

We are a consumer economy. Putting money into the hands of the American people is a boost to our economy. This isn't a big stimulus package. The COVID bill is an emergency supplemental. But this piece will make it something very important to growing and sustaining our economy.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for the work that your committee did, Brandon and the others, for putting in the dependent clause. Otherwise, 16 years and under would get the direct payment. But, I mean, as a mother of five and grandmother of nine, I know that children are dependent after 16 years of age, especially if they are still in school. There are others who are dependent because of one thing or another, some physical challenges that they may have in life. Who knows what goes on in a family?

Nonetheless, if they are dependent, they will be receiving a direct payment, another important boost for American working families, another important boost for our economy as we go forward.

So I, again, thank the chairman for his work. It is a simple vote. Our goals have been to crush the virus, honor our heroes who help us crush the virus, and put money in the pockets of the American people. Today, we will be doing that right now.

Legislation will be a lifeline for millions of Americans. It improves on the previously passed relief bill by including dependents, ensuring that families with children in college, adults living with disabilities, or elderly family members can also receive relief.

The Republicans have a choice. The Republicans have a choice: vote for this legislation or vote to deny the American people the bigger paychecks they need. To reject this would be a denial of the economic challenges that people are facing, and it would deny them, again, the relief they need.

Madam Speaker, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for the aptly named CASH Act.

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