Political Quotes

“I thank my colleagues Senator Cardin, Senator Shaheen, and Senator Schumer for their leadership on this issue of seeking better transparency and oversight with regard to a program that involves now almost a trillion taxpayer dollars. I also join Senator Schumer in the sentiment that our colleague from Florida has been both sincere and bipartisan in his efforts on this program. The fact is that this program, the Paycheck Protection Program, cries out for stronger oversight as does the entire CARES package. We will now be spending an authorized $3 trillion--the Federal budget and then half again--with little or no oversight. Yet we know that this program meets a need among small businesses that is absolutely critical. I have traveled my State via video conference and have had telephone calls and communications of all kinds with small businesses around Connecticut, and I have seen and heard firsthand how they are hanging by a thread-- struggling to keep their doors open and stay alive. This program gives them a lifeline. It has, in fact, provided many powerful success stories, as my colleague Senator Shaheen said, but it has also produced some horror stories about big customers of big banks who have received favored treatment to the detriment of the smaller businesses that were supposed to have been the beneficiaries of this program.…”