Press Releases

(Washington, D.C.) – Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. (IN-08) released the following statement after voting against House Democrats’ $2.2 trillion so-called coronavirus relief bill a partisan wish list put forth by Speaker Pelosi that once again has no chance of becoming law and blocked much needed help for struggling Americans:

“Speaker Pelosi is back again attempting to jam through Congress her radical left agenda disguised as a COVID-19 relief package. This is a messaging ploy that Washington Democrats have used time and again right before an election to pander to their voters. While Hoosiers struggle to make it through another month of this health care and economic crisis, Speaker Pelosi has shown she has no intention of working across the aisle to provide much needed economic relief to our communities.

 “There are a number of bipartisan ideas – like the RESTART Act and legislation aimed at enhancing and reopening the Paycheck Protection Program  – which enjoy broad support on both sides of the aisle that could easily pass Congress and be signed into law by the President, but Speaker Pelosi refuses to allow the House to vote on these bills. While Speaker Pelosi and Democrats in Congress are focused on playing politics, Republicans in Congress are focused on trying to pass bipartisan solutions that will provide continued relief to Main Street businesses, providing our communities and schools with the resources to open up safely, and protecting the jobs of working class Americans.”

Background

Heroes Act 2.0: 

This bill recycles the same socialist wish list that was offered in the Heroes Act, which House Republicans overwhelmingly rejected and cannot pass the Senate or be signed into law by President Trump. Costing approximately $2.2 trillion, this is nothing more than a messaging exercise intended to appease the far-left base by included progressive policies that have nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic including:  

• Defunds the police by removing $600 million from the original Heroes Act intended for the COPS Hiring program and state and local law enforcement assistance.
• Removes safeguards in the Paycheck Protection Program that would prevent taxpayer money from bailing out Planned Parenthood.
• Provides “deferred action” and work authorization during the emergency declaration and for 90 days after for illegal aliens working in jobs that could be held by out of work Americans.
• Federalizes elections, with only five weeks to election day, by including stringent, impossible to achieve mandates on how states must run elections, including early voting, no ID requirement for in-person voting, same-day registration, and no excuse vote by mail without safeguards or restrictions on ballot harvesting. 
• Provides a tax break for millionaires and billionaires by repealing SALT limitations for 2020.
• Uses taxpayer dollars to bail out failing multiemployer pension plans while failing to include any needed reforms to fix the problem.
• Pushes back the deadlines for the Census and delays final counting.