Speaker Nancy Pelosi defends cost of $3 trillion coronavirus relief package: 'The chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank has told us to think big because interest rates are so low...We intend to use those low interest rates to bolster the American people.'
Democratic leaders announced the House will vote on the gargantuan measure this Friday, leaving members with less than three days to pore over the nearly 2,000 page bill."The chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank has told us to 'think big' because interest rates are so low," Pelosi said."We intend to use those low interest rates to bolster the American people. We must think big for the people now, because if we don't, it will cost more in lives and livelihood later.
The House is also expected to vote on a remote-voting resolution Friday which does not appear to have Republican backing. The package also extends unemployment benefits, ensuring weekly $600 federal unemployment payments will continue through January 2021. The current extension is set to expire in July.
The measure also bolsters the small business loan program with another $10 billion for emergency grants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.“These are the pillars of our plan to go forward, to make our own environment in a way that is, again, unifying and respectful of those who are sacrificing their lives, as well as those who are feeling so much pain through all of this,” Pelosi said on MSNBC."This is what they need – this is meeting the needs of the American people.
This latest bill, if it passes both chambers of Congress, would become the largest, most expensive spending package in U.S. history – trumping the $2.2 trillion measure Congress passed in March. "We’re going to insist on doing narrowly targeted legislation --- if and when we do legislate again and we may well – that addresses the problems, the needs and not the aspirations of the Democrat majority in the House," McConnell told reporters Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
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