Scalise Calls Out House Dems for Refusing Bipartisan COVID Effort
March 11, 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) called out House Democrats in today's colloquy for abandoning every opportunity to work with Republicans on targeted COVID relief, like safely reopening schools and speeding up vaccine distribution, as they rammed their $1.9 trillion package of progressive priorities through Congress.
Whip Scalise also criticized House Democrats' erratic House Floor schedule which delays Members from effectively addressing their constituents' concerns in their respective districts.
See highlights from the colloquy below.
On Democrats' dangerous socialist agenda:
Click here or on the image above to view his remarks.
"When you look at what passed yesterday, the only bipartisan vote was against the bill. Every Republican, in fact, a Democrat voted against it as well. You had two Democrats who voted against it originally when it came through the House the first time. But the bottom line is, it was the majority party and President Biden who chose to go it alone, who chose to have a closed process where Republicans were shut out. There were many efforts including a number of Senators going to the White House to meet with the President who offered ideas and every one of those ideas was thrown in the trash can. That's not a unity message. That's not trying to work with people from all parties and all walks of life to come up with the best ideas, it was a go it alone, socialist agenda, very little focused on COVID at one point, $1.9 trillion, over 90 percent of which wasn't dedicated to health care. You want to talk about schools? There was not a single dime in that bill that requires schools to reopen. You look at the money for schools and hundreds of billions by the way of dollars are already out there that aren't spent, hundreds of billions that we all worked on together. When President Trump said he wanted to work with Republicans and Democrats, he actually followed through on that promise as the gentleman noted and every CARES Act bill is a very bipartisan bill that was an effort made on both sides to work together and they were targeted. It was targeted at helping families who were struggling and helping small businesses who were struggling on getting money into the search for a vaccine operation. Operation Warp Speed should be something we all celebrate.
"President Trump said he wants to put all the focus at FDA on not only finding a vaccine but prefunding the manufacturing of the vaccinations even before FDA approves them. So, we don't have to wait an extra few months that we don't have. That's why we're at a point where we can have 100 million vaccinations. We tried to double that number in this bill. That amendment was voted down. But on schools, my colleague, Ashley Hinson, had a bill to say, let's say if the schools are going to get new money, which they already have enough money to fortify their schools, to reopen safely. Many took us up on that and are open in the classroom today. Some have chosen not to, but not for lack of money. Let's be very clear about that fact. Ninety-five percent of the money for schools in the bill that was passed yesterday can't even be spent this year. Ninety-five percent of it when you have hundreds of billions of dollars still unspent that can be used to reopen schools that want to get back in the classroom. That money's already there, that money did not require, that need did not get met yesterday. That need was already met by Congress. Some chose to do it. Some have chosen not to reopen even though not only is the money there to reopen, but the science is there. The science lays out not only how to safely reopen, but it points out the devastating damage being done to children in this country by not reopening. And so, when the gentleman talks about polls and well, the polling says this bill is really popular. Hey, do you want a check for $3,500? I am sure a lot of people would say yes until they realized that $350 billion of this money goes to bail out failed states in a state like California who has a $10 billion surplus and is going to get over $40 billion. So, I'm sure if we asked a question to people across this country, do you think it's right to borrow $1.9 trillion from our children, cause someone is going to have to pay for this, it's not going to fall out of the sky, is it right to borrow $1.9 trillion from our children to give California $41 billion when they currently have a $10 billion surplus? I think we can get a different answer than the 70 percent saying yes, if you said in this bill, which we tried to correct, every felon in prison today in America will get a $1,400 check from the taxpayers that is in the bill, they try to take it out in the Senate when they allowed them on the floor to bring an amendment. Not a single amendment was allowed on this House floor to fix those kind of disparities. Every Democrat in the Senate voted no, they said, continue to give $1,400 checks to prisoners, felons in prison when we're already paying for their food, for their lodging, for their health care.
"Now they're going to get a $1,400 check from the taxpayers in this country borrowed from our children. Americans know that I hope they do, because when we then ask them the question later, now that you know what's really in the bill, what do you think about it when you recognize some of the other ideas that were brought forward not only to reopen schools, but to target the money? To focus on helping small businesses, those were the things that we wanted to do, trying to put some guardrails and limitations in place like the previous CARES Act bills did, which is why they were all bipartisan. But when you look at these expenditures. And then you recognize no money requiring schools to reopen, but our border is wide open right now, and if someone comes over legally, they will get a check. That is a concern to a lot of people. So just look at the bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It did go through committee. It did have markups and hearings. And in fact, it yielded a great benefit to every American. Every income group benefited from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But as the gentleman knows. The group level that benefited the most by us cutting taxes was the lowest income because we rebuilt our middle class because of that bill. We made America competitive because of that bill and in this bill that passed yesterday, a bipartisan vote against it. There was tucked away language that prohibits states from cutting taxes. Explain what that has to do with COVID. If your state, every state will get money from that bill. Again, California gets over $40 billion, even though they have a $10 billion surplus. But if a state tries to cut taxes, they actually get penalized in the bill. People are aghast when they hear that it just came out yesterday. What does that have to do with covid? Why wasn't this a targeted relief bill, because one side wanted to close the process out, just go it alone and push a socialist agenda that has nothing to do, a little to do with covid relief."
"President Trump said he wants to put all the focus at FDA on not only finding a vaccine but prefunding the manufacturing of the vaccinations even before FDA approves them. So, we don't have to wait an extra few months that we don't have. That's why we're at a point where we can have 100 million vaccinations. We tried to double that number in this bill. That amendment was voted down. But on schools, my colleague, Ashley Hinson, had a bill to say, let's say if the schools are going to get new money, which they already have enough money to fortify their schools, to reopen safely. Many took us up on that and are open in the classroom today. Some have chosen not to, but not for lack of money. Let's be very clear about that fact. Ninety-five percent of the money for schools in the bill that was passed yesterday can't even be spent this year. Ninety-five percent of it when you have hundreds of billions of dollars still unspent that can be used to reopen schools that want to get back in the classroom. That money's already there, that money did not require, that need did not get met yesterday. That need was already met by Congress. Some chose to do it. Some have chosen not to reopen even though not only is the money there to reopen, but the science is there. The science lays out not only how to safely reopen, but it points out the devastating damage being done to children in this country by not reopening. And so, when the gentleman talks about polls and well, the polling says this bill is really popular. Hey, do you want a check for $3,500? I am sure a lot of people would say yes until they realized that $350 billion of this money goes to bail out failed states in a state like California who has a $10 billion surplus and is going to get over $40 billion. So, I'm sure if we asked a question to people across this country, do you think it's right to borrow $1.9 trillion from our children, cause someone is going to have to pay for this, it's not going to fall out of the sky, is it right to borrow $1.9 trillion from our children to give California $41 billion when they currently have a $10 billion surplus? I think we can get a different answer than the 70 percent saying yes, if you said in this bill, which we tried to correct, every felon in prison today in America will get a $1,400 check from the taxpayers that is in the bill, they try to take it out in the Senate when they allowed them on the floor to bring an amendment. Not a single amendment was allowed on this House floor to fix those kind of disparities. Every Democrat in the Senate voted no, they said, continue to give $1,400 checks to prisoners, felons in prison when we're already paying for their food, for their lodging, for their health care.
"Now they're going to get a $1,400 check from the taxpayers in this country borrowed from our children. Americans know that I hope they do, because when we then ask them the question later, now that you know what's really in the bill, what do you think about it when you recognize some of the other ideas that were brought forward not only to reopen schools, but to target the money? To focus on helping small businesses, those were the things that we wanted to do, trying to put some guardrails and limitations in place like the previous CARES Act bills did, which is why they were all bipartisan. But when you look at these expenditures. And then you recognize no money requiring schools to reopen, but our border is wide open right now, and if someone comes over legally, they will get a check. That is a concern to a lot of people. So just look at the bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It did go through committee. It did have markups and hearings. And in fact, it yielded a great benefit to every American. Every income group benefited from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But as the gentleman knows. The group level that benefited the most by us cutting taxes was the lowest income because we rebuilt our middle class because of that bill. We made America competitive because of that bill and in this bill that passed yesterday, a bipartisan vote against it. There was tucked away language that prohibits states from cutting taxes. Explain what that has to do with COVID. If your state, every state will get money from that bill. Again, California gets over $40 billion, even though they have a $10 billion surplus. But if a state tries to cut taxes, they actually get penalized in the bill. People are aghast when they hear that it just came out yesterday. What does that have to do with covid? Why wasn't this a targeted relief bill, because one side wanted to close the process out, just go it alone and push a socialist agenda that has nothing to do, a little to do with covid relief."
On Democrats' secretive legislative process:
Click here or on the image above to view his remarks.
"Finally, on the House Committee schedule, especially we've taken up 14 different rules bills this Congress so far, bills that have actually come to the floor under a rule. Unfortunately, only one of those bills actually went to committee, meaning 13 out of 14 bills never even went to committee to have the debate in the openness and transparency that this Congress deserves. I think that millions of people across the country would expect that we would be having as we're shaping policy that it's not just a one-sided approach that if a socialist agenda is being pushed by one side or the other side at least have that discussion in a committee process offer amendments, the amendment process is critically important and that's been lost too often even the $1.9 trillion spending bill that over 90 percent of which had nothing to do with health needs, not a dime of which was dedicated to safely reopening schools, which is a huge cry amongst millions of parents across the country. And so, when not only one side but frankly nobody on the majority side was even allowed to offer an amendment, a $1.9 trillion spending bill, probably the largest bill that has come through Congress in the history of our country and not a single amendment Democrat or Republican was allowed in the House on that bill to be brought forward. We were able to bring some amendments in committee.
"Every one of them was voted down or removed, not one Democrat that I saw was even allowed to bring an amendment up in committee on a $1.9 trillion bill. That's a major concern. It's a concern that denies the people's house from being able to express the will of the people when we have ideas and suggestions. Maybe, for example, as we wanted to add the House to say, should a felon who is in a prison be able to get a $1,400 check, weren't even able to bring that amendment up to have that debate. Can we at least require that schools reopen? If hundreds of billions of new dollars are going to go to schools. Shouldn't the requirement be that they use that following the CDC guidance following the science that's widespread that says the schools should be open and long term damage is being done to kids by not being in the classroom, millions and millions of kids, maybe over 60 percent of the children in America not getting daily in the classroom, learning while unions are more concerned saying, you can go to spring break if you're a union member, but just don't post pictures because we don't want anybody seeing it when they should be in the classroom teaching our kids.
"That debate never got to happen here on the House Floor and frankly in most of the committees because these bills aren't going through committee and that one bill went through committee with the order clearly given not to allow a single amendment, not a single amendment in the House was added to a $1.9 trillion spending bill. I'm sure some people might think that was the perfect bill, that not a single change, but sometimes the smallest bill has a change made that makes it a better bill, but not that bill. That's not who we should be as a House. That kind of closed process. Thirteen out of 14 bills didn't even go through committee. And the one that did the $1.9 trillion bill, not a single amendment by a Republican or Democrat in the house was allowed to be added. I hope that's not the standard. It's surely not reflective of what this House should be doing."
"Every one of them was voted down or removed, not one Democrat that I saw was even allowed to bring an amendment up in committee on a $1.9 trillion bill. That's a major concern. It's a concern that denies the people's house from being able to express the will of the people when we have ideas and suggestions. Maybe, for example, as we wanted to add the House to say, should a felon who is in a prison be able to get a $1,400 check, weren't even able to bring that amendment up to have that debate. Can we at least require that schools reopen? If hundreds of billions of new dollars are going to go to schools. Shouldn't the requirement be that they use that following the CDC guidance following the science that's widespread that says the schools should be open and long term damage is being done to kids by not being in the classroom, millions and millions of kids, maybe over 60 percent of the children in America not getting daily in the classroom, learning while unions are more concerned saying, you can go to spring break if you're a union member, but just don't post pictures because we don't want anybody seeing it when they should be in the classroom teaching our kids.
"That debate never got to happen here on the House Floor and frankly in most of the committees because these bills aren't going through committee and that one bill went through committee with the order clearly given not to allow a single amendment, not a single amendment in the House was added to a $1.9 trillion spending bill. I'm sure some people might think that was the perfect bill, that not a single change, but sometimes the smallest bill has a change made that makes it a better bill, but not that bill. That's not who we should be as a House. That kind of closed process. Thirteen out of 14 bills didn't even go through committee. And the one that did the $1.9 trillion bill, not a single amendment by a Republican or Democrat in the house was allowed to be added. I hope that's not the standard. It's surely not reflective of what this House should be doing."