Need for Fifth Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to echo the rising chorus for a fifth coronavirus bill and to applaud three vital provisions addressed to the special circumstances of the District of Columbia in that bill.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have taken needed initiative in introducing the HEROES Act to get ahead of this virus, instead of chasing it.

The first four bills have proven themselves. Jurisdictions following the CDC guidelines, like the District of Columbia, are seeing deaths decrease. Across the country, careful reopenings are occurring. To be sure, scientists are warning of prolonging the virus unless there is more social distancing and masking, because that is far from universal.

But my Republican friends have called for a pause. Of course, we have seen unprecedented spending, but this is an unprecedented virus. The virus has shut down the entire world.

I am pleased that Republicans may be declaring the end of their pause barely a week after House passage of the HEROES Act. Yesterday, the Senate majority leader said Congress will probably have to pass a fifth bill. Thank you, Senator McConnell.

President Trump said--and I am quoting him--``I think the United States will need another round of stimulus.''

They may be following Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said more is needed for the economy shortly after the April report showed a 14.7 percent unemployment rate.

Mr. McConnell only wants to fund increased losses due to COVID-19, whatever that means. But tailoring the next bill based on whether COVID-19 or something else caused the losses would require an inexact calculus that itself could bog down the next bill, particularly what I regard as the most essential part of the HEROES Act, $1 trillion for State and local government.

This is the government, State and local government, that is closest to the people. This is the government that funds first responders and healthcare workers in local hospitals. This is the government that funds the workers who pick up your garbage twice a week. This is the government running on fumes.

So are the American people who need another cash payment, an additional $1,200 per family member, up to $6,000 per household, and other essentials like unemployment benefits and housing benefits, a 15 percent increase in nutrition programs. People have got to eat during this crisis.

I also have been able to get included in the HEROES Act a trifecta of provisions that the District must have, beginning with the $755 million in retroactive funding Republicans in the Senate removed from the CARES Act by treating the District for the first time in American history as a territory, when we have always been treated for what we are, a State for funding purposes, and, of course, the D.C. statehood bill has enough cosponsors to pass this very year.

We have always received State-level funding because we pay the highest Federal taxes per capita in the United States. The HEROES Act also includes money for State, county, and city funding, the first time the District has ever had to break down its funding. The District is a unique jurisdiction in the United States because it operates at all three levels.

The HEROES Act also authorizes the District to participate in the municipal liquidity facilities funding of the Federal Reserve, if that should become necessary. The $3 trillion HEROES Act sent to the Senate last week is a marker. It will probably not be enough, as large as it is, to contain this virus. But, at a minimum, it should get us started on sensible negotiations.

Time, Mr. Speaker, is not on the side of the virus. Let's beat it with the HEROES Act.

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