[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 26 (Thursday, February 11, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 3, 2021

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, the Budget Resolution before the House is the 
first step toward providing urgently needed relief for the American 
people, as our Nation struggles to address the COVID-19 pandemic and 
its impact on our economy.
  The need for Congress to act is both great and urgent. We're in a 
race against death, with over 450,000 fellow Americans lost to COVID-
19. Our failure to defeat the virus has dragged our economy down, with 
more than 18 million Americans currently unemployed and scheduled to 
lose their unemployment insurance in six weeks if Congress does not 
act.
  House Concurrent Resolution 11 allows Congress to quickly pass a bold 
$1.9 trillion relief bill to defeat the virus, support workers and 
small businesses, and help families until the economy can reopen. 
President Biden's American Rescue Plan includes $20 billion for a 
national vaccination strategy to increase supply and vaccination sites; 
$50 billion to scale up testing through the purchasing of rapid tests 
and expanded lab capacity; and $3 billion in innovative COVID-19 
treatments. While we have effective vaccines to prevent people from 
getting COVID-19, we do not yet have accessible medicines to treat 
people who are sick with the disease. This plan funds research and 
large-scale clinical trials needed to develop therapeutics such as 
antivirals and antibodies to help people recover from COVID-19. The 
American Rescue Plan will also extend increased unemployment insurance 
for laid-off workers and provide resources for state and local 
governments to preserve the jobs of essential public workers fighting 
on the frontlines against this pandemic. These are the right policies 
at the right time.
  House Concurrent Resolution 11, the Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 
2021, allows Congress to provide pandemic relief through 
reconciliation, a procedure that allows the Senate to bypass the 
filibuster and pass this legislation with a simple majority vote. The 
American people simply want Congress to help them survive this pandemic 
and defeat the virus. This resolution is a major step in making good on 
our promise to provide bold, urgent, and necessary support to those who 
have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and to address our cascading 
economy, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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