WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress is not always great at juggling multiple things at once.
So with the national outcry over the death of George Floyd demanding some type of response from Washington, it’s looking like another potential coronavirus relief package is either weeks away — or not happening at all. And Ohio lawmakers are a great example of the divide over what the next step should be.
What You Need To Know
- Amid George Floyd protests, coronavirus debate stalls on Capitol Hill
- Ohio Democrats want another large COVID-19 relief package
- Ohio Republicans want to wait out dissemination of funds already passed
“Our work is far from finished,” Representative Joyce Beatty (D, 3rd Congressional District) said in an interview on May 28. “We will be back. We will have another stimulus package. I believe that the Senate will take much of what was in our $3 trillion Heroes bill.”
That same day, Rep. Bill Johnson (R, 6th Congressional District) explained why he felt differently.
“I think, by and large, the American people want to earn their own living,” Johnson said in an interview. “They don’t want to depend on the federal government to just continue to give it out.”
Democrats want another giant relief package, which is why House Democrats recently passed the $3 trillion Heroes Act — which is now stalled in the Republican-led Senate.
“We can’t sit around and wait and smoke a cigarette and hope this problem may or may not go away,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D, 13th Congressional District) said in an interview on May 15. “It is happening now. That’s a tough reality. It’s time to act.”
But Republicans argue the relief money already signed into law — roughly $3 trillion — hasn’t all been spent yet.
“Speaker Pelosi’s proposal recently was to spend an additional $3 trillion,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R, 8th Congressional District) said in a Skype interview on Tuesday. “To me, a more rational approach would be let’s make sure we can use the money that’s already out there.”
Davidson has introduced a bill that would give states more flexibility to spend the $150 billion already set aside for local governments on whatever they need — not just COVID-19-related matters, as originally passed.
Fellow Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Stivers (R, 15th Congressional District) wants something similar.
“So I got a call from a county commissioner from Fairfield County this weekend who told me that if we untied the strings on the money that they have already received — it’s about $2 million for that county — that would be enough,” Stivers said in a Skype interview on May 26.
Republicans control the Senate, so they will determine when another relief package will be voted on. And President Trump hasn’t been commenting much on the pandemic in recent days, except for saying it’s time the country reopens.
But Ohio Democrats told me local leaders and essential workers are saying to them more relief is needed.
“I know for the district that I represent, the counties and the municipalities are hemorrhaging revenue,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D, 9th Congressional District) said in an interview on May 28.
“We expect them to go to work, we pay them little, we don’t protect them,” Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) added in a virtual interview on June 2. “That’s where we should start.”
Senate leadership has said a potential vote on another relief package may not happen until late July.
