Floor Speech on H. Con. Res. 11, FY 2021 Budget Resolution, A Key Tool to Accelerate Passing COVID Relief for Americans

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Speaker Pelosi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his great leadership of the Joint Economic Committee, a place where we can really think in a way that is entrepreneurial and successful for the American people. His private sector experience, as well as his respect for the public sector and the non-profit sector, equips him well to lead that important committee and to take us to the Floor on this bill here. Leading – following the Budget Committee under the leadership of John Yarmuth, a tireless worker for the budget and this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that a budget should be a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a nation should be reflected in when we put a budget together. It's curious to me to hear the distinguished gentleman on the other side of the aisle, it would be ludicrous if it weren't so deadly serious.

$1.9 trillion, the President of the United States – excuse me – has determined is necessary to meet the need of the American people at a time of a pandemic, at a time of consequences to our economy that are drastic. And I'll go on to that in a moment, $1.9 trillion, which is almost exactly the figure of cost of the Republican tax break that they gave to the richest people in America. Eighty-three percent of the benefits went to the top one percent.

So, this legislation, which helps meet the needs of the American people, to be considered a tax break bill for the rich, it's pathetic. It's pathetic. And it's just – the fact of this Congress is that somebody can say things that aren't true on the Floor, but if you say that they said something that was untrue you would be called out of order. But I will just say, the facts are these: $1.9 trillion when you add in the interest. Mr. Green of Texas referenced this. If you add in the interest, $1.9 trillion, $2 trillion added to the national debt with no stimulus for our economy, only debt for our children.

Instead, here today, we have a bill that meets the needs of the American people. In the election, the American people cast their ballot for big, bold action and decisive leadership to turn the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis around. Since then, the need has accelerated drastically. The time for decisive action is now. That is why, today, we will pass, excuse me, Mr. Speaker, a budget resolution to pave the way for a landmark coronavirus rescue, rescue plan, which will do what is needed to save lives and livelihoods.

We hope that Republicans in Congress would support a legislative package that will bring real relief to people and to our communities, and passing this budget does not preclude reaching a bipartisan agreement. I would rather not work under reconciliation, but if that's the way we have to work in order to get results for the American people, we must, we must use every option at our disposal, but I'm hopeful that we can have bipartisanship and that does not – ensure that Congress can move forward and meet the country's needs.

The need for this action could not be more urgent, and Americans cannot afford to wait. They cannot afford any further delay. Tens of millions of Americans have been infected. Nearly half a million have died, with one-fifth of those deaths occurring over the past month. Meanwhile, tens of millions of workers are jobless, food and housing insecure, and that's skyrocketing, school closures threaten our children's education. Our most vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of these crises, as the underlying health and economic disparities continue to grow. President Biden's American Rescue Plan will take a comprehensive, strategic and science-based approach to tackling the public health – I will put this all the way up – and economic crises. It will crush –

Here's what it will do. It will put money in the pockets of the American people. It will put vaccines in the arms of the American people. It will put children back in school and workers back to work. It will crush the virus and help us safely reopen schools, safely reopen schools, mounting a national vaccination campaign that includes community vaccination sites, ramping, scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of PPE, investing in high-quality treatments and addressing health care disparities.

It's sinful, Mr. Speaker, to see how few people in our communities of color have had access to vaccines up until now, but that will change under President Biden and with this legislation. It will deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of the crisis, providing $1,400 checks per person to households across America and providing housing and nutrition assistance.

Tens of [millions] of people are food insecure in our country. Children, maybe 17 million children are food insecure in our country. Access to safe and reliable child care, let me say it again, safe and reliable child care, and affordable health care, expanded Unemployment Insurance and enhanced tax credits for families, low-income working families.

Finally, the plan will support communities struggling with the economic fallout, providing a lifeline for the hardest hit small businesses, especially those owned by minorities, and honoring our heroes, honoring our heroes. Yes, $350 billion to honor our heroes, about one-fourth of what you were giving to the top one percent in our country in your tax bill. And why is that important? Because these are the state, local, county governments, townships and the rest that provide the services that the people need.

Health care workers, first responders, police and fire, transportation, sanitation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. They need the state and local governments to be funded, and that is very important in a bipartisan way. Across the country, it has bipartisan support. So, yes, it's $350 billion and, again, it is to meet the needs of America's – these people risk their lives to save lives and now they may lose their jobs because of the cost of the coronavirus and the lost revenue from the pandemic.

Finally, the plan would support communities struggling with the fallout, again, providing a lifeline – that's the point I'm making now – for hardest hit small businesses I mentioned that are owned by minorities. I said that. Frontline health workers, teachers, transit workers and other essential workers risking their lives to save ours. It bears repetition.

The cost of inaction grows by the day. If we don't enact this package, we could end up with four million fewer jobs this year and it could take a year longer to return to full employment. An entire cohort of young people may have lower lifetime earnings because they were deprived of another semester of school. Millions of parents, particularly moms, could be forced to stay at home, reducing their wages and future job prospects. I believe the figure is 100 percent, but just about 100 percent of the jobs lost in December were women.

But if this package is passed and [enacted] in full by March, economic growth is projected to jump by nearly eight percent this year, and then by an additional four percent next year. At that pace, we will create 7.5 million jobs this year alone and a total of 10 million jobs by the fall of 2022, reaching full employment. But don't take it from me.

Experts agree that this bold action is needed, especially as interest rates are at the historic lows and the return on smart investments has never been higher.

As the Treasury Secretary – we're very proud – Janet Yellen stated, ‘Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now and long-term scarring of the economy later.'

‘Right now, with interest rates at historic lows,' she continued, ‘the smartest thing we can do now [adds] is to act big. In the long run, the benefits will far outweigh the cost.' Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen.

Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics said, ‘It's better to err on the side of too much rather than too little. Interest rates are practically zero, inflation is low, unemployment is high. You don't need a textbook to know that this is when you push on the fiscal accelerator.'

And also last week, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, stated, ‘I'm much more worried about falling short of a complete recovery and losing people's careers and lives that they built because they don't get back to work in time. I'm more concerned about that and the damage it will do.'

Reconciliation bills have passed on a bipartisan basis seventeen times, really, in recent years, including one that I participated in. We passed the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, which delivered life-saving health care to nearly 10 million children.

As I've said, the need for action could not be more urgent. Americans cannot afford further delay. Listen to our – listen. Listen. Listen to your constituents. We should all be listening to our constituents. They are our bosses. We must meet their needs. Listen to our constituents. Respecting President Biden's proposal to meet their needs, we must work together to save their lives and their livelihoods.

I wish we could have a strong bipartisan bill on this budget bill – vote on this budget bill. As I said, this budget is a statement of our values. And our values are that we are here to meet the needs of America's working families. It's about our children, their health, their education, the economic security of their families, safe world for them to thrive, a world in which they can reach their fulfillment. It's always about the children.

It's not about heaping mountains of debt on them as they did in the tax scam that they passed and then to have the nerve to call this a tax break for the wealthy when it has low-income tax credits, child care tax credits, refundability, billions of dollars for the working poor in our country.

Economists, Treasury Secretaries of both parties have said, if you really want to turn the economy around, help the neediest, the most – help the neediest first. We do that in this legislation as we bolster the middle class and crush the virus.

I urge an aye vote and yield back the balance of my time. Thank you.