AFA of PA ACTION ALERT

December 22, 2020

Issue

They Call This Relief?

Details

With only a few short hours to read the longest bill Congress has ever written (5,593 pages!), the call for a vote came and the bill was overwhelmingly passed.  The bill totals $2.3 trillion and is a $1.4 trillion annual federal spending package to keep the federal government funded for another year and a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill all rolled into one. 

The House voted 359 – 53.  Here’s how PA’s 18 Congressmen voted:

Boyle, Brendan (D) — Yes

Cartwright, Matt (D) — yes

Dean, Madeleine (D)– yes

Doyle, Michael (D)– yes

Evans, Dwight (D)– Yes

Fitzpatrick, Brian (R )– Yes

Houlahan, Crissy  (D)– Yes

Joyce, John (R )– Yes

Keller, Fred  (R )– No

Kelly, Mike (R )– Yes

Lamb, Conner (D)– Yes

Meuser, Dan  (R )– Yes

Perry, Scott (R )– No

Reschenthaler, Guy (R )– Yes

Scanlon, Mary Gay (D)– Yes

Smucker, Lloyd  (R )– Yes

Thompson, GT (R )– Yes

Wild, Susan  (D)– Yes

The vote in the US Senate was 92-6 with Senator Bob Casey, Jr. and Pat Toomey both voting “yea”.

Representative Ken Buck (R-Colorado) opposed the legislation saying that he “cannot, in good conscience, vote for this legislation that spends billions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects that have nothing to do with COVID relief or keeping the government funded.”  Here’s some of the problems he pointed out that are included in the bill:

  • Language to further Green New Deal policies
  • Millions of dollars to build two new Smithsonian museums
  • A provision regarding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama

President Trump, calling the bill a “disgrace,” pointed to several other problems:

  • Millions of dollars tagged for the Egyptian military, Cambodia, Burma
  • $10 million to “gender programs” in Pakistan
  • Tens of millions going to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
  • Millions to combat the spread of Asian carp in the Great Lakes
  • Stimulus payment being doled out to illegal aliens and their families

Other problems

  • Includes a provision that would nullify President Trump’s power to invoke the Insurrection Act
  • Funds new cars for federal HIV/AIDS workers
  • Establishes a Climate Security Advisory Council
  • $700 million to Sudan
  • $300 million for fisheries

This bill does very little to help unemployed Americans and small business owners which have been hit the hardest by the tyrannical actions of governors.   President Trump has said he will veto the bill unless Congress provides more money in stimulus payments and loans to small businesses.  “I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple.  I am also asking Congress to get rid of the unnecessary and wasteful items in this legislation.”

Action Steps

Encourage President Trump to carry out his veto threat.