[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 171 (Thursday, October 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5113-H5114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      MORE COVID RELIEF IS NEEDED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, as we stand here on October 1, a few hours 
ago the leadership of airline industries all across America announced 
very sad news for their workforce. The fact of the matter is that, with 
CARES Act money expiring at midnight last night, massive layoffs are 
now going to be implemented over the next few days and weeks.
  American Airlines and United Airlines, together, about 32,000 workers 
are going to be laid off today, this morning. Again, other airlines are 
doing exactly the same thing.
  The impact, the ripple effect in terms of the collapse of consumer 
demand because international air travel is virtually nonexistent, 
domestic air travel is way down and it is going to stay down for months 
to come, has resulted, again, in a ripple effect in the aerospace 
industry.

                              {time}  0930

  Raytheon Technologies up in New England, which is the parent company 
of Pratt & Whitney, announced 16,000 layoffs, again, because the 
commercial airline industry's demand is basically drying up.
  Boeing industry announced 16,000 layoffs also because of the same 
reason. The commercial sector in terms of airline orders, again, has 
completely dried up.
  They are not the only sector that are still struggling in this COVID 
recession. Talk to any restaurant owner in any district all across 
America, talk to anyone who is involved in the tourism destination.
  Disney announced 23,000 layoffs on Monday, again, because of the 
collapse in visits because of the COVID pandemic.
  In Connecticut, we have two large, Native-American casinos, Foxwoods 
and Mohegan. They have started partial operations, but still, half 
their workforce, again, has not been recalled, again, because it is 
just not safe for people to have gatherings in large density.
  Tuesday night, the President of the United States, before the 
American people, made the claim that: nothing to worry about; we are in 
a V-shaped recovery.
  Well, tell that to the airline workers. Tell that to the people in 
the restaurant and hospitality sector. Tell that to the people in the 
tourism sector.
  Again, all across America, 780,000 new unemployment claims yesterday 
across this country.
  We are not in a V-shaped recovery. We have got a lot of businesses 
out there working their tails off to get back to work and to get 
normalcy back. But the fact of the matter is, as Jerome Powell, 
President Trump's own chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has said 
repeatedly: Until we get control of COVID, we are not going to have a 
sustained economic recovery that is going to bring back the jobs that, 
again, we have lost in the millions.
  So here we are. We are on the verge, again, of another wave of job 
losses in this country. And the question of the day is whether Congress 
is going to step up like it did four times previously on a bipartisan 
basis to pass COVID relief? The CARES Act being, obviously, the biggest 
one back in March, which, again, the American people are desperate for 
us to move out on.
  A couple of days ago, the Speaker released a package, which for the 
first time included a COVID relief extension for airline workers, 
which, again, would avoid the bloodbath that is going to happen in 
terms of jobs in the next few hours in this country.
  Finally, we have seen the Secretary of the Treasury show up here at 
the building 130 days after we passed the Heroes Act to have a serious 
conversation about getting some COVID relief out there to, again, 
stabilize this economy.
  We can do this. And I say that because we have done it four times 
already acting on a bipartisan basis.
  What we have to do, though, is just sort of drop the happy talk about 
the fact that this virus, we are on the other side of it, nothing to 
worry about, V-shaped recovery.
  It is really just almost insulting to the American people to spin 
that kind of message out there when people are struggling, having their 
unemployment

[[Page H5114]]

benefits run out, their economic impact payments have long since been 
spent, they have got rent due, they have got utility bills due. They 
want to go back to work, but the fact of the matter is, we are still 
not there yet where we can have a sustained economic recovery.
  Mr. Speaker, I plead with my colleagues on the other side, who, 
again, have whip notices going out to oppose any Heroes 2.0 or anything 
like it, to please just think about the success that we did back in 
March when we passed the CARES package, which to this day is still 
providing some benefit. Those new rapid tests that the President 
announced a couple of days ago, which is a wonderful development, was 
paid for by the CARES Act, but we need more.
  And Jerome Powell has warned us repeatedly since May that the CARES 
Act was a great achievement by Congress, but we need to have more 
fiscal stimulus until we get past this pandemic.
  Again, the clock is now ticking.
  And, again, Mr. Speaker, for the sake of all of us and our fellow 
citizens, please let's come together and get a COVID relief bill passed 
this week.

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