On Thursday, members of Congress were back in the House to vote on yet another coronavirus relief bill. While some in the Democratic leadership like Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi have called this bill a win—even if a compromised, stop-gap one—they eked out few concessions from Republicans.
They managed to secure $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for expanded testing, but there’s no additional funding for cities and states to keep paying for essential services like police and garbage collection, no oversight for fossil fuel companies getting relief funds, no support for the struggling postal service, and rent relief—there’s not even a second round of the $1,200 relief checks that started going out this month. This new bill primarily replenishes the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a fund meant for small businesses.
New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal critic of Democrats’ half-measure responses to coronavirus relief, largely going along with Republican efforts to prioritize big businesses while leaving working class people with paltry support. In an interview on MSNBC on Tuesday, she said, “Every time we pass one of these bills, we are hearing that the real solution is coming in the next bill and the next bill and the next bill.”
Ahead of the vote on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez took the opportunity to deliver remarks condemning the large corporate handouts:
“On behalf of my constituents in the Bronx and Queens, New York’s 14th congressional district, the most impacted district in America, calling people losing their families every day, it is a joke when Republicans say that they have urgency around this bill. The only folks that they have urgency around are folks like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Shake Shack. Those are the people getting assistance in this bill.”
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to major restaurant chains like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Taco Cabana, and Potbelly Sandwiches successfully applying for PPP and receiving up to $20 million in relief funds meant for small businesses. After public outcry, the burger chain Shake Shack announced it was returning $10 million it had received.
She continued: “You are not trying to fix this bill for mom-and-pops. And we have to fight to fund hospitals. Fighting to fund testing. That is what we’re fighting for in this bill. It is unconscionable. If you had urgency, you would legislate like rent was due on May first and make sure that we include rent and mortgage relief for our constituents.”
Few members of Congress, according to The Intercept, have raised the issue of rent relief—namely Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Maxine Waters of California. Landlords across the country have been illegally evicting tenants who fail to pay rent during the pandemic, and lawyers fear that “a tsunami” of evictions is on the way, according to BuzzFeed News.
Meanwhile, Pelosi says she expects to have “major aid” for state and local governments in the next bill. But after securing $90 billion in tax breaks almost entirely for people earning more than $1 million a year, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell announced that he’s not willing to deliver more coronavirus relief in the near future. In an interview Wednesday, McConnell said, “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route.”
