Political Quotes

“Madam President, I take this time to review with my colleagues S. 4008, the Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022-- legislation that Senator Schumer has set up for action tomorrow. I want to start by saying that this bill--and the underlining bill that it deals with, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund--was a bipartisan product in which Democrats and Republicans worked together to help an industry that was in desperate need, the restaurant industry. It provided relief for their revenue losses, and we were proud that we were able to get that passed. The challenge was that after it was enacted, we provided $28 billion for the restaurants under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. In reality, that was not enough money to cover the demand, and we found that where close to 100,000 restaurants were able to qualify and receive funds under that program, 170,000 were shut down through no fault of their own. So we went to work, Democrats and Republicans, in an effort to rectify that inequity and help an industry that was in desperate need. We filed legislation in August of last year. And I am proud that it was bipartisan, joined by many of my Democratic colleagues and Republican colleagues. I want to single out Senator Roger Wicker, who has been the real champion on making sure that we worked in a bipartisan manner. We were joined on the Republican side by Senator Murkowski, Senator Ernst, Senator Cassidy, Senator Hyde-Smith, Senator Collins, and Senator Blunt.…”