Slotkin Stands with Republicans and Democrats to Demand COVID relief Bill Passage

I stand in front of you today basically with equal parts pride and frustration. Pride that the Problem Solver's Caucus came together in a bipartisan, bicameral way to come up with another proposal for COVID-19 relief. But in doing so, I acknowledge that I am also deeply frustrated with what has led us to this point.

Three months ago, in August, when negotiations stalled between the White House, the Senate and House, many of us in this bipartisan caucus started talking about coming together to come up with our own proposal. A group of people worked very hard so that in September we were able to stand at this exact same podium to kickstart negotiations with a proposal. Due that work, we did jumpstart those negotiations and I took a lot of pride in that.

Unfortunately, election politics got in the way of getting a confirmed deal and all three legs of the stool -- the White House, the House, and the Senate leadership own a part of that failure.

Since that time, the situation has gotten precipitously worse. Across the country, 7 million Americans have gotten sick and 75,000 have died in those three months that we have been negotiating.

In Michigan alone, we've seen a nine-fold increase in daily cases. So I stand at the podium today with another bipartisan proposal. This time it wasn't just the House and a bipartisan proposal, it includes the Senate, and I again feel pride.

Now we can all outline the reasons why this is so desperate. As my colleague Fred Upton said, the five hospitals in my district are at or near full capacity. Food banks have never been busier. Our restaurants, hospitality industry, and small businesses are facing oblivion. Our mission right now is to witness these stories and do something about it.

For everyone who has platitudes about what the country is going through, you should be asking them specifically, what have they done today to actually move us forward toward a compromise.

If they're just offering platitudes and they haven't come and joined us, signed up and endorsed the proposal, and said they're going to stay here until we get this done, whatever it does to their Christmas break, then they are talking empty words with nothing behind it.

It is no consequence to an ICU nurse or a small business owner to just have those empty words. What they care about is us getting together and fulfilling our mission to pass a bill. I thank my colleagues here for stepping up and finding common ground.

I urge leadership on all sides to make the same commitment that people are making at home every single day -- which is waking up and finding a way to muscle through this crisis. We owe that to them. We owe it to the country.

Source