Mid-Missouri politicians react to passing of American Rescue Plan

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Congress is sending President Joe Biden the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill after the House approved the bill Wednesday with a vote of 220 to 211.

The Senate passed the measure over unanimous Republican opposition four days ago.

All of Mid-Missouri's congressional delegation voted against the COVID-19 relief bill.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (R) released the following statement on the passage:

For the sixth time in less than a year, Congress considered legislation to address the COVID pandemic. The last five COVID relief packages have provided a combined total of $4 trillion in relief funding. However, an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Budget has found approximately $1 trillion that has yet to be spent from the previous relief packages.
The American Rescue Plan is serving as an excuse to spend our tax money on unnecessary things completely unrelated to the pandemic. With less than nine percent of this legislation designated for COVID, this spending spree could not be further from ‘relief.’

By pushing this bill through Congress in the name of ‘relief,’ we are recklessly gambling with our future while expanding our national deficit by trillions.

With a growing economy, COVID numbers going down, and over $1 trillion still available for ongoing needs, now is not the time to go further in debt by passing wish-list pork for the Speaker disguised as ‘COVID relief.’

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement after the Senate passed the bill:

This massive spending bill, and the partisan process by which it was passed, fails the American people. Last year, we worked together – Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate – to pass five bipartisan COVID-19 relief packages to fund the economic and health response to the pandemic. Instead of building on that successful pattern, Democrats rammed through a bill filled with untimely spending and misplaced priorities.

The bill spends nearly $2 trillion without taking into account what the unmet needs are and without targeting relief where it’s needed most. Democrats blocked Republican-led efforts to cut unnecessary spending in the bill and focus resources on priorities like reopening schools. The bill is filled with things that have nothing to do with COVID-19 relief. If our Democrat colleagues were confident they could justify spending limited taxpayer dollars on these non-COVID items, they could have made the case in the regular appropriations process. But because they decided to use the budget reconciliation process, we were left with an enormous, reckless, and partisan spending package that I could not support.”

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) voted against the COVID-19 relief bill, stating:

As I’ve said before, the ‘American Rescue Plan’ is nothing of the sort. It remains a partisan power grab and the American people are footing the bill. Mismanaged states are being rewarded for unnecessarily destroying small businesses with a $350 billion bailout while actual Covid relief receives less than 9 percent of the funding.

For parents who are worried about their children falling behind, the education funding in the bill does next to nothing to help kids get back in school. Only 5 percent of the ‘emergency’ education funding will be spent this year. And after refusing to work with Republicans and attacking the bipartisan bills passed last year as insufficient, this bill cuts eligibility for stimulus checks meaning less Americans will receive checks under President Biden than under President Trump. While some celebrate it as the ‘most progressive’ bill in history, the numbers show this bill has very little to do with Covid relief and even less to do with everyday Missourians.

Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) released the following statement after voting against the bill:

There is simply no reason to rush through this bill. Ninety percent of it has almost nothing to do with COVID. We need targeted relief, but this bill does very little to reopen small businesses and get our children back in the classroom. That’s the key to recovery and that’s what we should be focused on, instead of using COVID as an excuse to fund a bunch of liberal special interest priorities.