Working for the Inland Empire (Cong. Rec., Dec. 10, 2020)
Summary
Page H7140 of the House section of the Congressional Record for December 10, 2020, made up of speeches in interleaved columns, headed Working for the Inland Empire. A tribute wishes Harley a happy birthday, describing him as a man in the arena who will never be on the sidelines. Speakers urge a relief package with payments for working families, stronger unemployment payments, relief for cities and towns and funding for testing, vaccines and hospitals, saying the American people have waited too long, and another speaker sarcastically lists items the majority has taken up instead, which are the speakers' views.
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“Working for the Inland Empire (Cong. Rec., Dec. 10, 2020).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-12-10-crec-2020-12-10-pt1-pgh7140-7bb522931d/
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H7140 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE December 10, 2020
done them better. The credit belongs to the communities safe; and funding for test- Republican friends on the need for just
man who was actually in the arena, who ac- ing, vaccines, hospitals, and commu- providing the billions and billions of
tually strives to do the deeds, and spends nity health centers so we can end this dollars that have already been appro-
himself in a worthy cause.
pandemic and get back to our lives. priated and is just sitting there. We
Mr. Speaker, just like the former The American people sent us here to don’t want to make that available be-
President, I know that HARLEY’s place work for them. They have waited for cause we have got all these important
will always be in the arena and never far too long for Congress to pass a new things.
on the sidelines. relief package. Let’s get this done on Like last week and this week, all
Annalise joins my family and yours— their behalf and let’s not leave Wash- these important things:
Kaira, Trace, Avery, Shea, and Dylan— ington until we do. Let’s see, we took care of saving the
in wishing HARLEY a happy and healthy f lives of ceiling fans this week. So that
birthday and a whole lot of love. apparently was very critical.
GOVERNMENT OVERREACH
f And, last week, we knew that people
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under were suffering immeasurably from
WORKING FOR THE INLAND the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- COVID, and rather than, again, helping
EMPIRE uary 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas with funding, we took up a marijuana
(Mr. AGUILAR asked and was given (Mr. GOHMERT) is recognized for 60 min- bill that will provide tax incentives
permission to address the House for 1 utes as the designee of the minority and actually some money and some as-
minute.) leader. sistance in getting marijuana going
Mr. AGUILAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it is an stronger nationally. It wasn’t a bill
today on behalf of the Inland Empire of honor to agree with the comments that that said that we are going to let the
southern California, the region my have just been made. We do need to States decide for themselves. It was a
family has called home for generations. come together and provide assistance Federal bill to really push not medical
As we stand here today, people in to the American public, to those who marijuana, but just marijuana.
communities like mine and across the have been so extremely adversely af- So the answer, according to the ma-
country are hurting. They are mourn- fected, not merely by COVID, but by jority, to COVID and businesses going
ing loved ones, they are missing pay- the, in some cases, very offensive uses bankrupt is just smoke some dope and
checks, and they are wondering what of government power and actually un- you won’t be nearly as anxious about
their government is doing to make the authorized power in numerous cir- the loss of your business, the suffering
situation better. cumstances taking away people’s free- of your family, and the isolation of our
Right now, Democrats in Congress dom for the first time in American his- senior citizens.
are laser focused on providing the re- tory when they were not sick, quaran- I have had senior citizen places of
lief the American people need in this tining people who were not ill, shutting residence directors just weep every day
pandemic. We have been for months. down businesses, picking and choosing as they see the seniors not able to
We passed the CARES Act in March, winners and losers among businesses. spend time with their families, in iso-
but we didn’t stop there. We passed the Yet we, as Republicans, have been beg- lation.
Heroes Act in May, and then we passed ging our friends across the aisle, come
the updated Heroes Act. b 1300
on, there are things ready to be used—
We have continued to work on behalf readymade. We didn’t address any of that, but we
of the American people, and our Repub- The money that was appropriated did take care of making dope available
lican counterparts have not met us several months ago—there is over $100 through the bill—at least the House
halfway. Senate Republicans’ months billion, maybe a whole lot more than has so far. It is doubtful the Senate
of inaction have led to a dire situation $100 billion—is waiting to be used, but will take those things up. And we also
across this country, and it is uncon- the deadlines in that initial bill have voted to take care of—as I understand,
scionable for them to continue to do been exceeded. So all we need to do is it just pertains to one place—where ti-
nothing as we approach the holidays. say that money is available again. It is gers are kept.
We have lost valuable time, and it is still just sitting there. But as my friend Dr. DESJARLAIS
my hope that, using the bipartisan As businesses are going bankrupt, my pointed out—he was looking at the
framework, we can reach an agreement friends across the aisle are allowing numbers—and in the time that it took
as soon as possible. To do nothing in them to go bankrupt and basically in this Chamber to vote on that bill,
the face of this much pain is unaccept- holding them for hostage and saying: there were more people that died of
able. The people we represent have en- We are going to keep letting businesses COVID than have died from tigers in
trusted us with an enormous responsi- go broke; we are not going to let you the last 25 years.
bility, and we cannot let them down. use the money that is sitting there Mr. Speaker, I know there are dis-
f waiting to be used to help these busi- agreements on priorities. Apparently,
nesses to save them from bankruptcy there was a need felt to do this bill to
COVID–19 RELIEF and to keep them in business; and we address the need of tigers, but we still
(Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given are going to let them keep going out of left the needs of those dying from
permission to address the House for 1 business because we want a big com- COVID, and businesses that are dying
minute.) prehensive bill. because of the restrictions, we left all
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, the As I have said previously here, com- of that undone to take care of ceiling
COVID–19 pandemic has devastated our prehensive bills is a term that means fans, tigers, marijuana.
country for 9 months now. More than we want to make it so big that we can Mr. Speaker, we could get a bill done
15 million Americans have been in- stuff all kinds of pork in there that you rather quickly. And I understand we
fected. Nearly 300,000 are dead. Our won’t be able to find before we pass it. should have had a bill done 2 years
economy is on the ropes. Folks are That is what is meant in Congress by ago—it would have been easy to make
struggling just to get by, and Demo- comprehensive bill. it bipartisan—on funding infrastruc-
crats have been trying to pass a relief We ought to avoid comprehensive ture. We desperately need to upgrade
package for months. bills and we ought to have rival shots our infrastructure. According to most
Last week, Republicans finally met addressing just what needs to be ad- engineers and studies, we have like a
us at the table to negotiate a solution. dressed and not putting everybody’s fa- D-minus grade on American infrastruc-
SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with HOUSE
We need to get this deal done. It must vorite gift in the legislation. ture. But my understanding for why we
address the urgent needs of the Amer- So we could have agreed on that have not done a bill in the last 2 years
ican people by providing direct cash months ago. I understand the position that the Democrats have been in the
payments for working families; strong- of the majority Democrats is that majority here in the House, has been a
er unemployment payments; relief for there have just been so many other im- fervent desire to avoid President
cities and towns; new resources for the portant things that we haven’t been Trump getting any credit for anything
frontline workers who are keeping our able to get around to agreeing with our that really helps America. Despite that
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