Michelle Fischbach: “I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and, Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time…”

“I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and, Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Today, we are here to consider a rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3807, the Relief for Restaurants and other Hard Hit Small Businesses Act. This legislation gives a check to the Small Business Administration without accountability or oversight mechanisms or even taking into account SBA's feedback. Mr. Speaker, this bill appropriates an additional $55 billion to restaurants and small businesses, none of which is paid for. According to the Congressional Budget Office, as much as $340 billion in unobligated funds from various COVID relief legislation is available for expenditure, but we are not reallocating those. Instead, we would be relying on more deficit spending to provide these sums. Structurally, this bill is not going to work. This is a lot of money, and it seems that Democrats just want to throw it to the wind, because when you look at how the funds are being distributed, this bill will not fix the problem. This is something that could have been addressed had the bill gone through the committee process. Because this bill is not immediately or responsibly paid for, it would further fuel the inflation crisis, which currently sits at a 40- year high of 7.9 percent. Inflation is the number one problem facing small businesses, according to them. That is what they are saying.…”