On the recordDecember 20, 2020
Mr. President, I want to commend Senator Toomey and thank him for his expertise, for his foresight, and for his courage on the issue of ending these CARES Act-funded Federal Reserve programs. You have probably seen that over the last few days, he has been subjected to an onslaught of vicious, dishonest attacks by Democrats and their stenographers in the Press Gallery, saying that he was somehow gumming up the works, that we were not going to pass this bill because the Toomey language was stopping it. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off, while Senator Toomey may be our thought leader on this issue, this was the Senate Republican conference's position. That is why our majority leader stood firm behind it. Second, as Senator Toomey said, this is not a new issue; this is not something we just started debating. We had versions of this in our bill this summer. As he laid out, the minority leader and the Speaker of the House had a version of it in their $3.4 trillion this summer as well. The minority leader sent a letter about it. This has been at the heart of this legislation's debate for months. And the fact that it was in their legislation, it was in their letter--they kept saying that we wanted to somehow sabotage the economic recovery--just goes to show you what their intents were with these programs.…





