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Blog
The WUHAN Rescissions Act
Washington, D.C.,
May 5, 2020
The recent CARES Act definitely had some spending that shouldn’t have been included as part of a COVID-19 response package. So yesterday, I co-sponsored a bill to claw back over $27 billion from that legislation. Let’s dispense with the obvious first: Every bill is a compromise, and every member of Congress must decide whether – considered in its entirety – the good of that legislation outweighs the bad for constituents back home. The CARES Act was not perfect, but it did what needed to be done in the midst of awful pandemic. I’m not alone in this thinking; the vote in the House was 419-6, and in the Senate it was 96-0. But now’s the time to start cleaning up some things that shouldn’t have been considered in that bill. More specifically, things that weren’t directly and immediately related to our COVID-19 response like $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, or over a billion dollars in grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Congress can (and should) debate these items on their own merits. It’s not appropriate for them to fly under the radar onboard an emergency spending package. Many thanks to Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) for spearheading this effort, and eight other conservative leaders in the House for joining me as an original co-sponsor. It’s titled the “WUHAN Rescissions Act,” and you can find a link to this legislation with a complete list of proposed cuts here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6657/text?r=1&s=2 |
