October 21, 2020

Duckworth Votes No on the Republican “Skinny” COVID-19 Relief Proposal

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement after voting no on the Republican “skinny” COVID-19 relief proposal.

“We’re more than seven months into a pandemic that’s killed more than 220,000 Americans and all the Senate Republicans can muster up is a regurgitation of their failed ‘skinny’ relief bill that wasn’t even close to enough in September and is even further from what America needs today. By offering families nothing in additional stimulus payments, today’s legislation is an insult to hardworking Illinoisans and American workers everywhere who are struggling to weather this crisis. For months Republicans felt ‘no urgency’ to address this pandemic, and this bill is simply a reflection of their belief that these very real problems do not need urgent solutions.

“Their feeble, inadequate proposal wouldn’t do nearly enough to help workers who are facing layoffs, feed hungry families, keep roofs over people’s heads, support and strengthen the postal service at a time when our democracy depends on it or provide adequate testing and treatment when the lives of our fellow Americans are at risk. And despite the outrage and backlash over provisions of their proposal that would gut ADA protections in the workplace and our healthcare system, they’re continuing their assault on the disability community.

“We need to come together in a strong, bipartisan and meaningful way to help all Americans make it through this crisis. Even Trump has said he’d like to ‘go big or go home’ on COVID relief but, unfortunately, Mitch McConnell’s proposal today shows Senate Republicans aren’t interested in that and aren’t taking this crisis seriously. They’d rather go home with nothing than do the right thing to help Americans in their time of need.”