[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[House]
[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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