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Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 3, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs Health and Health Care

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this COVID supplemental package. This has been a dark and difficult past year for our world. More than 2 million people have died around the world, including more than 400,000 in our great country. Economies are in crisis around the globe, and over a billion children are out of the classroom.

Our country's health and economic challenges require a bold response in scale, and more delay is not an option. We must work to beat back this virus, shore up our economy, and ensure the most vulnerable are prioritized and protected.

But we cannot solve this problem without addressing the outside world also. Pandemics do not respect borders, and they don't care about nationalities.

As chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I firmly believe that the health and economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will only end once it ends everywhere. We are currently addressing the monumental task of vaccinating our country, but afterwards we must turn our attention to the remainder of the world. Only then can we fully put this worldwide pandemic behind us and put ourselves back on the path to economic prosperity.

Crucially, this package includes support for global health efforts as well as lifesaving humanitarian assistance. This means support for vaccine procurement, vaccine delivery, and sustained engagement to build the capacity of health systems throughout multilateral engagement. It means supporting organizations like the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the WHO, that the United States must partner with in order to succeed.

COVID-19 did not begin on our shores, but American innovation and global health leadership can end it. The cameras of history are rolling. The time to act is now.

We must join with what Chairman Yarmuth is doing and make sure that we help those who have suffered as a result of this pandemic. Extending unemployment insurance, helping those who can't pay for their rent or mortgage, putting our children back into schools, helping our small businesses; this is what this bill does. This is why we have to do it, and we have to do it now because this is the emergency of our time and it takes bold moves.

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