Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Coons for his comments and Senator Shaheen. Senator Coons is absolutely right. There are many reasons why we needed to bring up the next stimulus package before we go on recess. The issue of the State and local governments are real. I have heard from Governor Hogan of Maryland. I have heard from Mayor Young of Baltimore City. I have heard from our county execs. Their fiscal year begins at midnight tonight. They have hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue shortfalls that they have to make up because they have to have a balanced budget. That is going to mean they are going to have to consider layoffs. It means it will be difficult to open up schools in the fall. And the list goes on and on and on. They need help from us. The CARES Act was important. It did provide some meaningful help, but the CARES Act dealt with the direct cost to State and local government of taking care of COVID-19, not the revenue loss as a result of income tax revenues down, as a result of the special fees that local governments receive for parking or for rental cars or hotel taxes. We never made up any of that. They have to balance their budget. We needed to act on that. Senator Coons is absolutely right when he talks about the fact that in March, when we passed the CARES Act, we thought that the unemployed would have jobs available, certainly, by July, but that is not going to be the case for millions of Americans.…”