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Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 3, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the budget resolution. The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to inflict widespread harm across our communities. In addition to the thousands of people who are dying every day from this virus, millions of workers remain unemployed, students are falling further behind, and an unprecedented number of American families are facing hunger and homelessness. Anyone who doubts the need for urgent and immediate COVID-19 relief is not paying attention to the multiple ongoing crises affecting people across the country.

We will continue working with our Republican colleagues to find areas of agreement so that we can provide our constituents with the support they desperately need, but we can't put the label of bipartisanship ahead of the urgent needs of our communities. Our constituents don't want us to say that we could have provided relief checks in the amount of $1,400, but we needed to work with the Republicans, and now they are only $1,000.

The upcoming COVID-19 rescue package must extend assistance for the unemployed Americans, protect all workers from COVID-19 infections, and support frontline workers who have cared for our loved ones and kept food on the table during the pandemic.

The rescue package must also provide schools the necessary resources to open safely, to help institutions of higher education cope with severe financial strain, and to keep childcare providers afloat. We must also expand nutrition assistance to ensure that our children and families do not go hungry.

Finally, the COVID-19 rescue package must help close the massive State and local budget shortfalls, which will inevitably force painful cuts to education and other public services if left unaddressed.

Mr. Speaker, we are at a critical moment in the fight against COVID- 19. We have the responsibility to do everything in our power to meet the basic needs of the American people. This budget resolution gives Congress an additional tool to pass a COVID rescue package that will confront the pandemic and deliver the immediate relief that our constituents deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

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