Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. United States-Mexico Economic Partnership Act; Providing for Disposition of Senate Amendment to H.R. Purple Book Continuity Act of and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. PANETTA. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the COVID temporary relief package in this rule. We did it before. We must do it again.

Our past COVID legislation kept the economy afloat and our poverty rate flat. However, as Democrats passed more bills, the Senate and the President put a pause on those efforts.

Now, the pandemic is raging, hospitals are bursting, and our economy is hurting. That is why we must play our part with Federal funding to combat this disease and carry on through the locally mandated shutdowns.

This relief package will allow us to avoid calamity and aid our recovery by providing small businesses with PPP, laid-off employees with unemployment insurance, families with checks, farmworkers with PPE, renters with direct relief, and the ailing with the HOSPICE Act.

To help State and local governments, there is funding for broadband, food, healthcare, education, and transportation.

Look, this package should have been bigger. It should have been done quicker. It is not entirely what we want. But it is what we need to be that bridge to a vaccine-fueled revival in 2021. If we do that, we will further the faith in what we do here in Congress for the future of our democracy.

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