chair. the house rules committee taking a recess here. when they come back into session, live coverage on c-span3. in the meantime, we'll bring you some of the rules committee debate from earlier on the $1.9e trillion coronavirus relief membage.er >> thank you, mr. chairman.chai the good morning. thank you for the opportunity to appear before the rules ppear committee today.day. this dole-out package representa the -- the work of nine separate committees. i wouldarate like to say the ke bipartisan work of nine separate committees, but we all know tte, that's clearly b not the case. in fact, during the debate within those committees, only two or less than 1% of amendments offered, were, in fact, accepted.cepted. this has been nothing short of a partisanan circus meant to do do really three things, enact a radical agenda, do so quickly to knock some wins for the president's buddies and do it

with as little transparency as possible. this is reallytranspar the urge. remember the old saying from er speaker pelosi, we have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it? that's the case.that that's what you need to poll after this bill passes with then american people. you won't get 70%. in we know what's in this one.esidn the president and our colleaguei want to push this bill through e congress before the american iz people have timee to realize n what's in it. that less than 9% of the bail out actually goes towards crushing covid-19 and putting t shots ins people's arms. this bailout will destroy job after job and increase the cost to put food on the table, ost clothes on your pack or heat inr your home, hurting over 31 million senior citizens on fixed incomes or that roughly 1 1 trillion in covid funding

remains unspent from the five prior bipartisan packages or ace that the economy is estimated to return to pre-pandemic levels of real gdpis y this year without further so-called stimulus hest spending. in fact, the highest gdp in 15 years is predicted. and when all is said in done, if this massive spending bailout becomes law, cbo has confirmed it will cost $36 billion in cuts annually to medicare. $36 billion in cuts to medicaree starting next year. the maximum level allowed under thech th plan. t this is the wrong plan at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons. let's do the right thing. let's do something bipartisan which actually puts nda nd america's

working class first and does not destroy america's working class. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thanks to the ranking member for having me today and talking -- to talk about the energy and commerce provisions in the american rescue plan. i just want to stress, i listened to what tom said, and i have a lot of respect for you. but the problem is that what we've done so far -- and i agree, we did a lot so far with the c.a.r.e.s. act over the last year and the various legislations that were bipartisan -- but it's not enough. people are still hurting. and there's a need to act quickly. and so what we put together today is a very bold and robust plan because as much as there's been progress, particularly now under president biden in terms of crushing the virus, it's still out there and we still have a long ways to go.

and so i would argue as much as we've done a lot, the need is much greater. and i know -- if i could just reference mr. cole, you talked about state and local, that's not under my jurisdiction. the reason we need to send out money for state and local aid is the same. in other words, these states and towns and counties have put out a lot of money to crush the virus. and they need to be essentially reimbursed for it. i was meeting -- i know that being from oklahoma and being a member of a tribe, i met with the ncai, the national committee for american indians the other day and, you know, they all talked about how the casinos are closed, the revenue is down. they have to supplement what they get from the indian health service from their local revenues and they're broke. that's why we have 20 billion in

direct aid to them. i want you to understand that when we talk about this aid to the towns, it's because they've had to recreate their health departments and spend a lot of money to crush the virus just as an example. i know you said, well, the economy won't improve unless we open everything up. well you can't open things up unless you crush the virus. when i go home on the weekends or even restaurants here in washington, in new jersey there's still -- 25% capacity in a restaurant or a retail store. but there's nobody there. so it doesn't matter if you open everything up because people aren't going to go because they're afraid of the virus. you have to crush the virus first in order to open things up. that's what we're doing with this american rescue plan. we're providing the resources and the support to crush the virus and relief for people who are facing this public health and economic crisis and one

other thing i would say too, i was very disappointed with the trump administration because the president -- president trump kept saying, well, this is not a national problem. this is something that the states have responsibility to deal with. i never agreed with that. i would tell them constantly, we have to have a national plan. you have to coordinate this at a national level. you got to get the supplies out to the states. you can't have them competing amongst each other and now under president biden we finally have a national plan. coordination nationally, getting the supplies out nationally, and that's what this is. this bill is the tools and resources to implement a national strategy so we're not constantly competing state to state, hospital to hospital. let me say briefly, if i can, because i heard about your cliff notes, chairman mcgovern, in the energy and commerce provisions, we provide funding to ramp up the vaccine, the testing, the contact tracing. we have 14 billion to speed up the distribution and administration of the vaccines.

we invest over 47 billion in a national testing strategy with funding for testing, community-based sites, more lab capacity, a contact tracing plan. we have $7 billion to mobilize up to 100,000 new full time public health workers to administer and get the vaccine and get the testing out. we also have 25 billion to address health disparities to protect vulnerable populations, and a lot of that goes to community health centers. we know that minorities, whether it's latinos or african-americans, they're not getting the vaccine in the right proportion. they're not being tested in the right proportion. in addition to that, i know mr. cole mentioned mental health and opioid. there's $4 billion to -- for programs because the people are under so much stress and so many -- to help them with treatment and preventive care. we also encourage states to expand access to health coverage

for vulnerable americans through medicaid. they will get a bigger f-map for their programs. that would bring another 2 million people who would gain health care access. and finally, mr. chairman, we have assistance for struggling families to help keep their lights on, water running by providing 5 billion for critical utility assistance programs and 7.6 billion to expand internet connectivity to help students and teachers without home internet service. that's a summary and i'll just say again, we need a robust plan. what we've done is not enough. this is the way to have a national strategy. crush the virus, and give help to the states. thank you, again, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. i'm happy to yield to ranking member mcmorris rogers. >> good morning, mr. chair.

i want to join in thanking you for the opportunity to appear before the rules committee. at the very top of the hearing, mr. chairman, you said that americans support this bill, the reality is, americans don't know what's in it. there's been no hearings. it's still a moving target. even yesterday the majority was changing the bill. on the energy and commerce committee, the republicans have demonstrated that we're serious about working on a targeted, timely package to crush the virus, to improve health and wellness in our communities, get kids back to school, people back to work, and a vaccine for everyone who wants it and needs it. the energy and commerce provisions failed to provide the targeted and timely relief. although the managers amendment does take out some of the extraneous provisions republicans raised concerns about during the committee. unfortunately, though, it's still not timely. according to cbo, of the over

120 billion spent in this title, only a little under 27 and a half billion will go out the door in the next 7 1/2 months. it includes partisan priorities such as funding for planned parenthood when there's no funding for the provider relief fund. it includes funding for historically bipartisan priorities but the money still won't go out the door quickly enough. community and mental health mobile crisis units, only 16 states have programs leaving the majority of the states unhelped by this provision in the short term. it includes bipartisan priorities that can and should be considered through regular order to address any potential unintended consequences and allow for permanent policy. there's an option for states to cover maternity care. but instead of the permanent policy that the full house passed last year, it provides funding for seven years. republicans have offered amendments in the energy and commerce committee to make this

bill more targeted and more timely and provide increased, real direct relief. many bipartisan solutions, whether it's more funding for nih research or to start important research were sidelined that have been -- that have been sidelined by covid-19 were not included. more vaccines, more transparency on vaccine allocation rejected. more vaccinations for teachers so that we can open our schools, our kids are in crisis, rejected. more testing for the workplace to restart the economy, more help for frontline health care workers through the covid-19 provider relief fund rejected. more relief for mental health and suicide prevention, rejected. sending more funding to states to help combat the opioid crisis, another health epidemic made worse by covid-19, many refer to it as the epidemic within the pandemic. rejected. upholding hyde rejected.

we also offer amendments to protect our workers from president biden recent executive orders that have worsened the economic crisis which would have reauthorized keystone and stopped the ban on fracking. the majority struck down every single one of these. every single one. yes, i'm disappointed. i hear things that the markup, quote, this is a good idea in theory, or i support the premise of this amendment. i ask what are we waiting for? people are suffering and begging to get back to work and for their kids to be in school isn't a premise or a theory. it's reality today. we have filed many of these, again, but i would like to talk about one in particular. representatives fox and i have filed an amendment cosponsored by our republican colleagues applying the hyde amendment to this bill. and i urge bipartisan support. all five of the previous covid

relief packages were bipartisan with the protections for the hyde amendment which simply states that federal taxpayer dollars cannot be used to fund elective abortions or health insurance coverage that pays for elective abortion. the hyde amendment has applied to all bipartisan health care spending going back over 40 years. democrats have refused to answer basic questions on why this has been rushed. how many jobs will it help create or maintain? when will our kids be back in school full time? and by full time, i mean five days a week, in person, not one day a week. how many additional shots will it help get into people's arms and how much sooner? it doesn't help the recovery effort when accountability is lacking and when trust is broken. republicans, especially my colleagues on the energy and commerce committee, we remain

eager for bipartisan work, for timely and targeted relief. people are hurting, our kids are in crisis. and i'm disappointed that this hasn't been the case with this majority or the continued abuse of power by speaker pelosi. i hope that we return to regular order to ultimately work together, crush this virus, and restore hope in the american dream again. i yield back. >> thank you very much. let me just say, i have a difficult time getting lectured about regular order from my friends on the republican side. but in any event, i'm happy to yield to chairwoman waters. >> thank you, chairman, ranking member cole and members of the committee for inviting me to testify on the american rescue plan of 2021. this bill includes several

provisions led by myself and members of the financial services committee, including representatives vargas, axne, presley, scott, cleburne, green. i support the committee's efforts to advance this bill to provide much needed relief to medical personnel, struggling renters and homeowners and people experiencing homesness, struggling small businesses and airline workers. nearly 1 in 5 renters are behind on paying their rent and collectively renters owe over $57 billion in unpaid rent, utilities and fees. the pandemic as worsened the housing insecurity as homeowners and renters struggle to stay afloat. many small businesses have closed their doors and many more are at risk of closure. and with limited travel, airline workers also remain at high risk of layoffs. the american rescue plan will support each of our communities

with especially resources to revitalize the economy, defeat the virus and help working families make ends meet. under my committee's jurisdiction, the bill would help medical personnel by providing $10 billion to boost production of emergency medical equipment. the bill would have renters by providing $26.2 billion for rental assistance, including more than 20 billion for emergency rental assistance and 5 billion for emergency vouchers. this bill would also help people experiencing homelessness by providing $5 billion for homelessness assistance and address the needs of homeowners by providing $10 billion in direct assistance for mortgage payments, property taxes, property insurance, utilities and other related housing costs. the american rescue plan would also support small businesses with $10 billion toward a

renewed state small business credit initiative. and 15 billion to fund payroll support for airline workers at risk of layoffs. so people are losing their jobs. standing in food lines and desperately seeking vaccines. i urge this committee to advance this legislation to the house floor and request the committee provide an appropriate rule for its consideration. i would like to thank so very much president biden and speaker pelosi for their leadership and for the tireless efforts of the members of my committee for helping advance these provisions and for those members who think that there have been no hearings, we add hearings. we had two hearings. and so as i close, i think it's important for me to state my absolute and unequivocal support for $15 pay increase for nearly 31 million people.

with that, i yield back the balance of my time. >> ranking member mchenry. >> thank you, chairman mcgovern and ranking member cole. look, the speaker of the house said the economic crisis is accelerating. specifically she said this to pass this mammoth spending bill. that quote is simply not true. the preferred narrative by my democrat friends is simply not the case in america today. the statistics do not bear out. the cbo says the unemployment rate stands at 6.2%. that's lower unemployment rate than president obama's first 5 1/2 years in office. that rate will continue to fall this year and reach its prepandemic side by 2022. that's without congressional action. that's without a cent more spent by congress or additional changes. personal income actually

increased at the end of last year and the personal savings rate stands at over 13%, a level not seen in four decades. the bureau of labor of statistics just updated these statistics this morning. and in their release they said that the personal savings rate is now at 20.5%, or nearly $4 trillion. that is the highest rate in quite a long time. the savings rate was 13.4% in december. these are significant, significant things. in fact, a 10% increase in personal income is directly related to the economy reopening and to the aid we provided last year on a bipartisan way. so what i think we need is targeted temporary relief, directly related to covid. no one is arguing to do nothing. what we're arguing for is to target that relief, not have a grab bag stimulus, like 2009, which my democrat friends have replaced the term shovel-ready

project now with covid in order to pass a similar big spending bill. the facts don't line up to the democrats' preferred narrative. we know there are americans that are suffering. for a year, we've been working to reach those in need and that's who we should be focused on in helps in this bill. we've used committee time and resources to debate a bill that only dedicates 9% of this $1.9 trillion price tag to combating the virus which we all believe we should do. americans know this bill, this progressive payoff, can't replace a steady paycheck. this bill is not going to safely reopen our economy. that's going to be done by the american people and getting shots in the arm. it won't get americans safely back to work. kids back in the classroom, or vaccines in our communities. that funds -- those funds were already put in place last year in a bipartisan way. during our markup in the house financial services committee, democrats rejected nearly 40 amendments that would have made

this bill better and more targeted at providing targeted aid towards communities who work to reopen their schools, getting vaccines out so businesses can reopen and ensuring this relief is getting out the door now rather than spending a decade of -- spending the money out over a decade when it's no longer necessary or appropriate. they submitted some of the amendments to the rules committee for your consideration. i believe that if president biden is serious about working with republicans, this rules committee can remedy the harm that was done in all of the other referring committees to this reconciliation bill. we can truly have a bipartisan result if it's the will of the democrat majority, if it's the will of president biden and if they're willing to work with us on providing temporary targeted relief to those most in need.

with that, i urge the inclusion of our amendments and thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> members of the committee, it's an honor to be here to present the work of the committee on oversight and reform on the american rescue plan. our instructions included 350 billion to help state, local, tribal and territorial governments vaccinate their citizens, rebuild main street economies while saving the jobs of first responders, frontline health workers and other providers of essential services. we received around a hundred letters of support dpr all levels of government across the country, including letters from more than 400 mayors in our districts and the districts of our republican colleagues. the funds they approved must be used to respond to or mitigate

the pandemic, importantly, this can including replacing revenue lost as a result of the pandemic. states in the district of columbia would receive 195 million. the rest of the state funding approximately 169 billion would be allocated based on unemployment rates, a widely understood and reliable indicator of need. for local government funding, the bill contains about 130 billion divided equally between cities and counties. the national league of cities report documented that cities face a revenue decline of 13% and a cost increase of 9% giving huge budget losses in these

cities that will be -- result in people being laid off and making it harder to recover. cities with more than 50,000 residents would receive their allocations based on a modified community development grant formula. allocations for counties and cities with populations of less than 50,000 would be based on population. finally, territories would receive 4.5 billion, while federally recognized tribal governments would receive 20 billion. our legislation provides funding for emergency paid leave for civilian federal employees and postal workers so they don't have to choose between their jobs and helps their family members with coronavirus. it provides 170 million for the government accountability department to fund robust oversight of federal coronavirus

relief efforts which is key to guarding against waste, fraud and abuse. i am grateful to all of your committee members, to president biden, which will make an enormous difference in the lives of each and every american, the relief in this bill will mean recovery, instead of recession for our economy and cannot come fast enough. thank you and i yield back. >> thank you very much. i'm happy to welcome ranking member comber. >> thank you. we're here today to consider not a covid-19 relief bill, but rather than a $1.9 trillion economy-crushing democrat slush fund. congress has already enacted relief totaling $4 trillion.

1 trillion remains unsent. the democrats want to push out another 1.9 trillion, including 350 billion in funds for state and localities. why? this is not about providing covid-19 relief. it's about shoveling billions of dollars to partisan pet projects. this bill does not provide targeted covid-19 relief for struggling american families, workers small businesses and schools. the money for schools can't be spent until 2022. after we're going to make our kids -- are we going to make our kids wait that long? there are no guardrails to ensure the funds are temporary and tied to covid-19 relief. this will increase the likelihood of fraud, waste and abuse. under this bill, states and localities will have the authority to transfer funds to private, non-profit organizations for any use. the democrats are giving federal employees 570 million in paid

leave. federal workers have kept their job throughout the pandemic which is more that can be said under the private sector. under this bill, you can stay home because your child's school is virtual and still get paid. let's safely reopen schools instead of paying folks to stay at home. in the oversight committee, democrats refused all 35 republican amendments. amendments that would prevent waste, fraud and abuse, require states and localities receiving funds to safely reopen schools. require fair and direct distribution of funds to both rural and urban areas. and prevent funds from going to states and city that have lockdowns that exceed cdc regulations. i'm offering an amendment today that will ensure any money distributed by the federal government to states and localities can only be used for expenses directly related to the ongoing covid-19 national emergency, exactly as we intended in the c.a.r.e.s. act. federal money should not be used

to bail out poor state budgeting or mismanagement. transferring the funds to third party groups with no oversight. covid-19 relief cannot be an endless slush fund to benefit political leaders interest groups. it's clear where democrats' priorities lie. sadly, the priorities do not include our kids, women, small businesses, or even pandemic recovery. with that, mr. chair, i yield back. >> thank you, very much. chairwoman velazquez. >> i'm here today to discuss the small business provisions of the american rescue plan act of 2021. since the onset of this pandemic, congress has worked to get business owners the aid that

this crisis demands. congress enacted the paycheck protection program, an economic disastrous loan and program to provide relief. over the course of the year, my committee worked diligently to make easier for small businesses to access and use this program. we hear from small employers every day about the difference this programs make. they say this programs have given them hope for the future beyond this pandemic. but after suffering through covid for nearly a year, millions of businesses are on the brink of collapse. 400,000 small businesses have already closed their doors for good. for every business that has closed, there is an another holding on for dear life.

this is especially true for very small and underserved businesses, including minority and women-owned businesses and those located in areas. we must act to protect all main street institutions. that is what the american rescue plan does. the bill creates a $25 billion program to support the bars and restaurants that covid has disproportionately devastated. the bill provides an additional $50 billion into the targeted advances to help those who apply for relief in 2020, who didn't receive the full amount, or in some cases, miss out entirely and creates a path for additional assistance for the most hard-hit businesses. the bill will also allocate an

additional 1. -- 1.25 for the shuttered venue operators grant program. this money will be critical to maintaining beloved community entertaining venues. it also expands ppp and the ability to 501 c non-profits and permits non-profits with multilocations to apply for assistance. this aid will help organizations like good will and the ymca to protect their employees and ensure they can continue to offer critical services to all of our communities. finally, the bill allocates 1.5 billion in administrative expenses to sba. this funds will help the agency run the programs effectively and get aid to small business owners as soon as possible.

i am proud of all the work our committee put into this bill which garnered bipartisan support during our markup and i urge my colleagues to support it. i would be happy to take any question. thank you for having me. >> thank you very much. i'm happy to welcome ranking member luke meyer. >> thank you, thank all of you for the opportunity to testify this morning on the american rescue plan act of 2021. mr. chairman, i strongly oppose this rule and the underlying legislation. our nation's small businesses are hurting. the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic have continued to mount for them. despite these circumstances, they have tried their best to move forward. adapting to constantly changing state and federal guidelines, mandates, restrictions and shut downs. they are suffering financial hardship and many have been forced to close their doors.

the data shows if we had been able to reopen as my home state of missouri did last may, they would have reaped extensive benefits. before covid-19, small businesses were projecting confidence in creating jobs. progrowth policies expanded our economy and resulted in low levels of unemployment. but this administration from its executive order eliminating the keystone pipeline to re-establishing all regulatory obstacles has saddled small businesses with new burdens that will last far beyond the pandemic. we now find ourselves here today considering yet another massive covid assistance package of additional spending even though recent data shows that as much as a trillion dollars in the previous coronavirus relief funding remains unspent. shouldn't we first have an accurate accounting for what has and hasn't been spent. many of the small businesses programs have not even been

activated by the agencies. we should get the reforms implemented first instead of spending more money on programs that we don't even know will work. i also have concerns about the bill's current expansion of the paycheck protection program beyond the original congressional intent by removing the important affiliation rules for non-profits that prevent planned parenthood and their affiliates from receiving assistance. only true small businesses qualify for ppp loans. the mandate will devastate small firms. a cbo study that shows this, and yet we go forward ahead with this irresponsible mandate. alarmingly, this package also continues down the path of inviting fraud into these vital programs. report after report by the sba's inspector general and government accountability office have cited

concerns with fraud. we should ensure that only eligible small businesses receive funding while protecting taxpayer dollars. and finally i must excess my disappointment with the process this legislation has taken. to the refusal to consider many minority ideas, discussion or -- take you back live to the house rules committee which is considering the $1.9 trillion coronavirus covid relief package. >> don't call ourselves democrat members and democrat bills and democrat plans. the proper form of our party is the democratic. we are the democratic members who have democratic plans and democratic bills. i thank you for that. and i hope that we can correct that odd political speech impediment which some of our colleagues seem to have affected. it would be