Setting Forth the Congressional Budget for the United States Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Thank you. The actions of my Democratic colleagues this week make it clear that they do not have any intention of working with Republicans on a bipartisan COVID package. There is no other explanation for the budget resolution that was introduced this week.

We are not considering this budget resolution for the usual purpose of establishing overall spending and revenue levels for the fiscal year. That has already been done. The sole purpose, then, of this budget is to establish reconciliation instructions whereby the majority can pass a partisan COVID package on a party-line vote, quite contrary to the inaugural address of President Biden where he said he was going to be reaching out to Republicans.

I know there has been some discussion with Republicans but not a serious effort to compromise. Embarking down this inherently partisan path of going the budgetary reconciliation route now poisons the well for any fruitful bipartisan negotiation. And you can't say it too many times that it is completely at odds with President Biden's call for unity and bipartisanship during the campaign and told to the people of the United States in the inaugural address.

It doesn't have to be this way. My Republican colleagues and I stand ready to engage in bipartisan discussions to reach an agreement to provide targeted COVID relief. A consensus package could be done very quickly, just as happened with the bipartisan CARES package back in March of last year. The relief package Congress passed in December came together very quickly once both sides agreed to set aside partisan poison pills. Republicans did that for things we wanted, and Democrats did that for things they wanted.

Now, hardly 6 weeks later, here we are back on a partisan approach to helping the needy people because of the pandemic and helping the healthcare crisis because of the pandemic. In the past year or so, we have done a lot. We have been able to come together in a bipartisan way to pass around $4 trillion in COVID-focused relief, and we did that all--you can't say it too many times--with strong bipartisan support. Why not now? There is no reason we can't come together for the American people and do it once more and probably have to do it again after something would be passed the early part of this year.

Instead of wasting our time with a weeklong partisan exercise, we could be working together today to forge a bipartisan compromise. If this was the course that the majority were to take, I think there is much that we could agree to with near universal support and do it in short order. Everyone recognizes we need to get control of the virus as a first priority. That is necessary to save lives and get back to anything close to resembling a normally functioning economy.

Rapid deployment of the vaccine is our best hope for our getting there to get the economy functioning. I doubt a single Member of this Senate body would object to additional funds for vaccine distribution if it will get more people vaccinated sooner. I am also confident that many on my side could agree to additional relief for individuals and small businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. I am sure of that because we have done it twice in the past. We can have a discussion on unemployment assistance, rental assistance, funds for reopening schools, and additional grants to small businesses to help them keep the lights on. I can say that very positively because we have done it twice in the past.

But any relief, from our point of view, ought to be targeted and focused on the task at hand. At $1.9 trillion, the President's proposal is far from being targeted and far from being focused. It includes permanent, liberal, structural economic reforms. This is using a crisis to enact long-term Democratic policy priorities rather than addressing the immediate needs of the day.

It also includes a bailout of fiscally irresponsible States at the expense of States that have managed their budgets very wisely, like my home State of Iowa. This is fundamentally unfair to the taxpayers in responsibly governed States.

The President putting forward his proposal should have marked the beginning of the discussion, not the end. If my Democratic colleagues would abandon this partisan exercise, bipartisan discussions could start in earnest. In fact, 10 Republicans made an attempt to do that by spending 2 hours with President Biden at the Oval Office. They reached out, obviously, and President Biden listened and discussed in good faith, but it doesn't seem like anything can come of it. This may mean that you have to compromise on some priorities. That is a simple part of life here in the U.S. Senate if you want to get anything done.

The excuse that there isn't enough time or the need for relief is so urgent that bipartisanship must go out the window is just that--nothing but a simple excuse. By following the current path, this entire week is being wasted on partisan theater, with no tangible benefit for the American people. At the end of this week, the Senate will be no closer to drafting actual relief legislation.

We should instead be working together to iron out our differences, to get bipartisan relief to the American people, and that can be done sooner than using the reconciliation process that turns out to be a partisan approach that is needless to do based on the fact that twice in the last 11 months, we have passed bipartisan virus relief packages to help fight the pandemic, to help people who are hurt by the economic consequences of that pandemic, and also to give confidence to the American people. Let's move in a bipartisan way.

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