Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 9051 and S. 5085
Floor Speech
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Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I want to say that I can't, for the life of me, figure out why it is so difficult to get a vote on the bills that Senator Sanders has just referenced, when, by my count, the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House, a large majority of the House of Representatives, and I think a supermajority of this body are all in favor--all in favor--of $2,000 COVID relief payments to working Americans.
Now, we have had some back-and-forth on the floor today about how we got to the level of $2,000. We all know how we got to that level. The President of the United States said that is the level he supported. The number originates with him. This is the number that he has asked for and the House adopted it and a majority of Senators have said already publicly that they support it.
And yet we can't seem to even get a vote on it. We can't even seem to have debate on it.
I mean, with all due respect, this doesn't seem, to me, to be a Republicans versus Democrats issue; this seems to be the Senate versus the United States of America and I just don't understand it and I am willing to bet--I am willing to bet that the American people don't understand it either.
I mean, here we are, in the throes of the worst pandemic in a century, that working people have borne the brunt of, and all that we are asking is that those working people be first in line for relief and that they be given meaningful relief that is only approximately commensurate with the hardships that they and their families have borne.
Now, I hear a lot of talk about how we can't afford it. I do notice, however, that we seem to be able to afford all kinds of other stuff. We can afford to send lots of money to other governments. We can afford to send all kinds of tax breaks and bailouts to big corporations. We can afford to spend enormous sums of money on pork--hundreds of billions of dollars in that last bill on pork--hundreds of billions. But we can't seem to find the money for relief for working people that the President and the House and the Senate all support, and yet we can't seem to get it onto the floor.
Let me just share three stories that I have heard just this week alone--this week alone--from my home State, from Missouri.
Danielle, from St. Louis County, called my office. She said her utilities are about to be shut off. She is desperate for help. She said a $2,000 payment would go a long way to help keep the lights on and her house warm.
I heard from a mother in Southeast Missouri. That is the bootheel of my State. She wrote that her son had lost pay because of his company's cutting back hours because of COVID and that he himself had contracted the virus and so he had to be home and he was missing work, missing shifts. His family can't make it paycheck to paycheck. Her daughter-in- law is donating plasma in order to help earn some extra grocery money-- donating plasma in order to get some money to pay for groceries to feed their family.
Richard from St. Louis wrote to me and said any extra help that he could get would go directly to paying his rent and his utilities. He had a job that he lost, in the retail business, the retail sector, and he is desperately struggling.
I would state to the Presiding Officer that these people are not ne'er-do-wells. These are working people. These are strong people. These are proud people. And all they ask for, as I have said many times on this floor before, is a chance to get back on their feet and to be able to provide for their families. And I can't for the life of me understand why we cannot get so much as a vote on these bills.
In fact, I enthusiastically support the measures that Senator Sanders is trying to bring to the floor, and I would vote for both if we were given the opportunity.
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