Joe Morelle: “I want to just reiterate, this is really a simple issue. And there may be attempts to distract from what is a simple…”

“I want to just reiterate, this is really a simple issue. And there may be attempts to distract from what is a simple issue, but the Office of Inspector General indicated that we had $78 billion in fraudulent claims. That is an estimate. Some estimates range as high as $200 billion. It seems silly to me that we wouldn't take advantage of those dollars which are being reclaimed to continue to try to get relief for the many, many tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of restaurants and their employees across the country. And I dare say that when I talk to--I have sat down with many, many restaurant owners in the last several months who had made application, and, simply, didn't have the resources in the fund that we had allocated to get relief, continue to talk to me about this. So this is really a very, very simple question. I know there are a lot of complicated, nuanced questions around here in Congress that we are always dealing with. This is a simple one: Do we want to help these small businesses, or do we choose not to help them? And I think we would argue here that they very much deserve and merit this support. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Ross), another distinguished member of the Rules Committee.”