[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 36 (Thursday, February 25, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H628-H629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICAN RESCUE PACKAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, none of us can rise to the floor of the 
House and talk about the cruciality of the American Rescue package and 
the absolute imperative nature of this particular legislation passing 
without acknowledging 500,000 lives--not numbers, but names of mothers 
and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles and 
cousins, sisters and brothers, just plain good friends, and loved ones 
that extend beyond one's family. And then for the love of this country, 
just our fellow Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, these are hardworking people, many of them essential 
workers on the front lines. Unfortunately, with the horrific and 
insulting effort that was made by the last administration, essential 
workers were out and about in grocery stores and delivery trucks, first 
responders, and no one attempted to stop the community spread. We had 
no testing protocol, and it was in my Congressional district that I 
worked with United Memorial Hospital to ensure that we had testing 
sites and opened the first testing site in my Congressional district to 
reach hard-to-serve areas on March 19.

  Mr. Speaker, since that time, we have done 55 with UMMC, a small 
hospital that I call, ``the little red engine that can.'' But that was 
all done by the energy and determination in a city that was clearly one 
of the hotspots as part of the State of Texas, complete inertia by our 
leadership until we began to see the high numbers of loss of life in 
the African-American and Latinx community.
  Mr. Speaker, I am on the floor today to reinforce my continued and 
emphatic support for the American Rescue Plan, because I don't see the 
500,000 lives as just numbers, I see them as persons who are in need.
  This plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes 
setting up community vaccination sites nationwide. It will also take 
complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up 
testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective 
equipment--a real fight against COVID-19 and all of its variants, 
including the UK, South Africa, and one that is just starting up. It 
delivers immediate relief to working families. It will give the 
$1,400--that will make it $2,000, increase in the minimum wage as well, 
and continued unemployment.
  Mr. Speaker, let me cite the city of Houston, that we have lost jobs 
in 9 key service sectors:
  Healthcare, 391,000 jobs lost; retail, 303,600 jobs lost; food 
services, 267,000 jobs lost; finance, 166,000; private education, 
63,000; art and entertainment 37,000-plus; accommodations, $28,000; air 
transportation, $20,200.
  One of the reasons my motion passed in the Budget Committee to ensure 
the protection of the public funding where Harris County will receive 
$141 billion plus. The city of Houston will receive $141 billion plus, 
because we are desperate to provide these dollars for our public 
resources, our municipal workers, our healthcare workers, our 
firefighters, our paramedics, our law enforcement, police. We are all 
in need to continue this fight. We need this money to support 
struggling communities, as indicated with the loss of jobs in Houston 
and Harris County.
  Mr. Speaker, the plan will provide crucial support for the hardest 
hit small businesses, and I am glad we have worked to target these 
small businesses, especially those owned by entrepreneurs from racial 
and ethnic backgrounds that experienced systemic discrimination, along 
with EIDL grants that my faith communities and nonprofits are asking 
about, and as well, the expanded eligibility for those entities and 
resources for jobs, to protect the jobs of first responders, as I 
indicated.
  Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear: We are hard hit. If we do not pass 
the American Rescue Plan, which I intend to support enthusiastically, 
we will end up with 4 million fewer jobs. It will take us more than a 
year to return to full employment. We will lower the lifetime earnings 
of our young generation. Millions of parents, particularly mothers--
women have been hurt by this even more--will be forced to stay at home, 
and another 4 years of suffering before real returns come.
  Mr. Speaker, we had to experience this, but we are not going to 
continue to experience it. Let's support the American Rescue Plan as 
the Biden administration has asked us to do.

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