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Last Saturday morning the House passed what is now being called the Phase II COVID-19 relief bill. Something the media failed to report, however, was the haste with which this bill was finalized and passed and the massive changes that had to be made on Monday, March 16, before sending it to the Senate.
My colleagues and I were told that at some point on Friday, March 13, Congress would vote on a second bill to address the Coronavirus pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met several times Thursday and Friday to negotiate the contents of the bill. I, along with the rest of Congress, waited two full days to find out what would be in the bill. Hour after hour we waited, and as Friday afternoon turned into night, and Friday night crept closer to Saturday morning, it seemed unbelievable that we would still have time to vote. Through all of this, I still expected an opportunity to read the contents of the bill on which I was expected to vote.
Finally, Saturday at midnight, we received the 110-page bill. Less than 30 minutes later, we were called to the Floor to vote on it.
Under normal circumstances, Members of Congress get information from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) describing how much the bill would cost. No statement was provided to us and we did not know the cost of the bill on which we were expected to vote. We were told later in the week that the cost of this bill was approximately $100 billion, but that is an estimate and the actual cost is still not known.
Paid family leave policy is an issue that Congress has discussed in recent years, and I think we owe it to the American people to get it right. This bill, unfortunately, pushed through a version of the policy that was not well-thought-out and would put many small businesses at risk of closure.
When the dust settled, the bill passed 363-40. I don’t see how responsible Members of Congress could vote for a bill whose content was withheld from us until, literally, the clock struck midnight.
I should point out that I voted for the $7.8 billion bill addressing the Coronavirus pandemic that passed the House on March 4 and was signed into law on March 6. Most of these funds went to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the bulk of which is being put toward the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institute of Health (NIH). An important provision in the bill I voted for is that it gave the CDC the funds needed to make testing kits widely available and open hundreds of testing labs to expedite the results. It is critically important for the federal government to know how many people are affected by the virus as we weigh the next steps in addressing it. Additionally, $1 billion has been reserved by this bill for disaster loans for small businesses affected by the pandemic. This is all in addition to the $50 billion in national emergency funding provided by President Trump.
I was disappointed with the carelessness with the Saturday morning bill was passed. A few days after this 110 page bill was rammed through the House, a 90 page "corrections" bill was passed. If 90 pages were needed to correct a bill that was only a few pages longer, doesn't it go to show how flawed the original bill was? Furthermore, the Senate did not pass the bill until mid-week, so we in the House had ample time and should have taken it to get the bill right the first time.
As Congress moves forward and we consider further legislation related to COVID-19, I hope that we will not only give the American people the relief needed to get through this crisis, but do so in a measured, responsible fashion.
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