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[Page H3986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GET SERIOUS ABOUT FUNDING STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, one of the most dynamic and striking
figures in American history was General George Patton. He was famous
for saying: Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Mr. Speaker, those words were given at a time of world crisis when he
was leading the Third Army through France and Germany and still ring
true today. We are in a world crisis.
This morning, the government released its GDP numbers, and it showed
that, in the second quarter, the U.S. economy shrunk by 10 percent.
That is the largest number since the government started recording GDP
numbers since 1947. Annualized, that is a 33 percent hit to the
economy.
What is even more, I think, concerning, is that the new numbers in
terms of new first-time unemployment claims this morning grew again
this past week to 1.43 million claims.
Yesterday, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome Powell,
foot-stomped the fact that not just the numbers from last quarter are
of concern, but, again, looking out in the future, the Federal Reserve
sees trouble ahead. The amount of credit card activity is dropping, and
again, as I said, new first-time claims are growing.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Powell, back in May, warned us that the CARES Act
was not going to be enough. This economy needed more fiscal stimulus,
and the House did show leadership because we passed the HEROES Act,
which was a package of fiscal measures whose cornerstone was extending
unemployment compensation and State and local assistance, again,
following the lead of the Federal Reserve Board Chairman, who said that
those are the most efficient ways to make sure that this economy does
not falter.
Well, here we are today, finally, after the Senate responded with
sort of a package, which, again, is completely missing any relief for
State and local government and which has this convoluted unemployment
extension, which Secretary Scalia, President Trump's own Secretary of
Labor, said would take 8 weeks for State government departments of
labor to implement.
It is totally inadequate, totally insufficient to deal with the
magnitude of the challenge. Again, when we look at State and local
assistance, there is not a Member in this body who does not have a
board of education, a local council, or a finance board that is
struggling with making sure that public safety, public education, and
public works are going to continue because revenue is cratering just
the way the government showed this morning that the economy is
cratering.
We have this debate about defunding the police. Not voting for the
HEROES Act was, de facto, defunding the police. How are local
governments, which primarily fund police departments, going to have the
resources in this economy to make sure that people's public safety
ranks are, in fact, protected?
Mr. Speaker, McConnell's plan, which he released earlier in week, his
own people called it a mess, a mistake--Ted Cruz. The President said it
is semi-irrelevant.
It is time to wake up and get serious. The blueprint is there with
the HEROES Act, in terms of making sure that we heed the warnings of
President Trump's own economic advisers--Chairman Powell--and look at
these numbers this morning: historic, jaw-dropping.
We need to act. It is time to listen to General Patton: Lead, follow,
or get out of the way.
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