WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Rep. French Hill (AR-02) joined his 184 Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives in voting against
H.R. 6800, the House Democrats’ so-called coronavirus relief bill.
“Today, I joined a majority of my Republican colleagues in resoundingly rejecting the Democrats’ far-left wish list, which no doubt will never see the light of day in the Senate and has zero chance of being enacted into law. My focus is on real efforts to defeat this virus and protect Americans by incentivizing, rehiring, and removing regulatory barriers to job creation, protecting small businesses from frivolous lawsuits, and introducing bills like the SAVE Act to return our medical supply chain from China.
“Over the past three months, Congress has passed a series of bipartisan bills that are extraordinary. They amount to $2.9 trillion in spending, and this money is still being distributed to our schools, our hospitals, our cities, and our states. It's disappointing that unlike those bipartisan bills, which were designed to beat this virus and get our economy back to full capacity, Speaker Pelosi opted to throw all of the Democrats’ pet projects in a pot and call it a bill. Behind closed doors, Speaker Pelosi succumbed to the far-left wing of her Democratic Party, giving into their progressive wish list, much of which pre-dates the current public health crisis or has little to do with the coronavirus response.
“Once again, the Speaker prefers to ‘message’ and shoots before aiming. The proper approach is to assess what we have implemented, look for gaps, and then introduce bipartisan legislation that can pass both chambers.”
House Democrats unveiled this 1,815-page bill on Tuesday, giving lawmakers little notice about its provisions. If enacted, this legislation would dramatically change our country, including a federal takeover of longstanding election laws, bailing out mismanaged pensions, and increase burdens on small businesses.
Provisions include:
- $915 billion to bailout state, local, and tribal governments
- $25 billion bailout for the Postal Service
- $10 million for National Endowment for the Arts
- $10 million for National Endowment for the Humanities
- Provides “deferred action” and work authorization during the emergency declaration and for 90 days after for illegal aliens working in jobs that could be held by out-of-work Americans.
- Allows illegal immigrants to receive economic impact payments because the bill does not require social security number verification.
- Uses taxpayer dollars to bail out failing union-run multi-employer pension plans.
- Extends $600/week unemployment insurance supplement through Jan. 31, 2021, plus a transition to allow the supplement to continue through March 31, 2021 for those who have not exhausted their benefits, meaning businesses will be competing with unemployment benefits for workers through spring of 2021.
- Provides a tax break for millionaires and billionaires by repealing SALT limitations for 2020 and 2021.
- Mandates a blanket release for certain covered federal prisoners and alleged criminals, while imposing a high burden for the government to prove they present a risk of harm to society upon release.
- Imposes a one-size-fits-all OSHA rule on all employers, which is counterproductive given the ever-changing circumstances created by COVID-19.
- Provides up to $10,000 in federal debt relief to low-income student loan borrowers for public loans.
- Radically expands Phase 2 paid leave employer mandates by extending the mandates for an extra year, applying them to all employers, including small businesses, allowing more categories of leave to be compensated, and subjecting small businesses to lawsuits for alleged violations.
- Federalizes elections by including stringent mandates on how states must run elections, including early voting, no ID requirement for in-person voting, same-day registration, and no-excuse vote by mail in addition to providing absentee ballots to all registered voters without restrictions on ballot harvesting.
- Expands Obamacare through a new Special Enrollment period, which has already been rejected by the White House.
- Provides a 100 percent subsidy to cover an individual’s premium costs for COBRA continuation coverage or a furloughed worker’s employer-sponsored coverage premium costs without Hyde protections to ensure that no federal funds are used to provide abortion services.
- Virtually rewrites SNAP policy with no reference to COVID-19 and permanently disallows rule making pertaining to work requirements and eligibility.
- Increases the minimum benefit from $16 to $30, permanently
- Waives all work requirements from June 1 until the date two years after enactment.
- Permanently rescinds the Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents, Broad Based Categorical Eligibility, and Standard Utility Allowance rules.
- Ensures the additional $600 in unemployment insurance income is not counted toward SNAP eligibility determinations.
