There is no urgency about the ‘emergency’ stimulus

Why I cannot support the Biden Bailout, by the congressman for Ohio’s seventh district

stimulus urgency gibbs
President Biden and Vice President Harris discuss the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill with a bipartisan group of senators in the Oval Office (Getty)
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I still believe we are in an emergency and that the pandemic requires attention now. But it seems President Biden and congressional Democrats are having a difficult time understanding what ‘emergency’ means. If they did, they surely would not have pushed legislation that spends almost half of the funds after this fiscal year and 10 percent of it three years from now.

The legislation proposed by President Biden is a sleight of hand, pretending to fund the critical components of our recovery — vaccine production and distribution — while doling out taxpayer dollars to groups, industries…

I still believe we are in an emergency and that the pandemic requires attention now. But it seems President Biden and congressional Democrats are having a difficult time understanding what ‘emergency’ means. If they did, they surely would not have pushed legislation that spends almost half of the funds after this fiscal year and 10 percent of it three years from now.

The legislation proposed by President Biden is a sleight of hand, pretending to fund the critical components of our recovery — vaccine production and distribution — while doling out taxpayer dollars to groups, industries and special interests that are still sitting on funding from last year’s coronavirus relief bills.

Congress previously authorized a total of $4 trillion in coronavirus relief last year and $1 trillion has yet to be spent. Why are we spending an additional $2 trillion, much of which duplicates spending from previous bills that contain $1 trillion in unspent funds?

And if we are spending another $1.9 trillion in emergency pandemic relief, why is half of it not being spent until next fiscal year or later? That does not sound like emergency spending to me.

Why are we not reprogramming the $1 trillion reserve (or even just taking it into account) to lower the price tag of the proposed legislation?

Why, in an emergency pandemic relief bill, is less than one percent of the funding even going to vaccine production, distribution, and supply chain management for fiscal year 2021?

Why, when Amtrak is already sitting on $1 billion in unspent aid, are they getting another $1.5 billion from President Biden?

Why, when it received $3.8 billion in the omnibus bill last December, is the Home Energy Assistance Program getting $4.5 billion more in the Biden Bailout? This is literally a 120 percent increase in funding.

Why, in an emergency pandemic relief bill, is 10 percent of the funding not slated to be spent until fiscal year 2024 or later?

President Biden and congressional Democrats are ignoring the reality that the only way out of this pandemic is to vaccinate everyone, fully reopen our economy and get back to normal. With rising vaccination numbers, falling infection rates, parents and students want to be back in school. Yet the Biden administration cannot stand up to teachers’ unions. The White House will even go so far as to throw its own CDC director under the bus to keep teachers unions happy. On top of the $53-$63 billion in K-12 funding from previous coronavirus bills, President Biden wants to spend an additional $130 billion (only five percent of which being spent this fiscal year) with no conditions or directives for reopening schools.

Finally, a provision slipped into the House version creates a new ‘Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund’, which provides a windfall $1,400 per week if their children are unable to attend school full time. Why are we providing federal employees such cushy benefits while so much of the country is still struggling?

Up until now, every coronavirus relief effort was negotiated and passed on a bipartisan basis. I supported them all, but I cannot support the Biden Bailout, in which Speaker Pelosi and President Biden have refused any and all Republican input to find common ground.

Rep. Bob Gibbs is the Republican congressman for Ohio’s seventh district.