[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 214 (Thursday, December 17, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H7242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PROVIDE COVID RELIEF TO FAMILIES

  (Ms. PRESSLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people who 
are struggling and feel abandoned by their government during this 
crisis.
  I rise in solidarity with every parent who has struggled to buy 
diapers and formula, every family behind on rent or crushed by the 
grief of an empty chair at the kitchen table.
  Our people are crying out, sick, tired, hungry, and broken. The 
people we have taken an oath to serve and protect need direct cash to 
survive the winter. We must send them survival checks immediately.
  Some of my colleagues are patting themselves on the back for sending 
corporations payouts--corporations, by the way, that have profited off 
of people during this pandemic--and shaming families on the edge. Shame 
on them for their theatrics and their callousness.
  450 pennies a day for the last 9 months, that is what our government 
has sent the American people to weather this crisis, and nothing for 
the immigrant families who drive our essential workforce.
  It didn't have to be this way. Our families deserve direct cash, real 
survival checks.
  Madam Speaker, $600 is hardly sufficient. It is an insult. We must 
act to save lives now. The pandemic has not discriminated in its 
hardship, but it would seem compassion and empathy have.

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