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As the House of Representatives prepares to vote on another COVID relief package, Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) has made it clear he will oppose the latest proposed $2 trillion bill because it diverges from previous bipartisan bills and focus most of its spending on things totally unrelated to fighting the COVID pandemic.

“COVID relief legislation should actually focus on providing relief and helping Americans, communities and small businesses recover from the COVID pandemic. Instead of pursuing bipartisan legislation like the four previous COVID relief bills, Congressional Democrats drafted a bill behind closed doors, then rejected 244 of 245 amendments offered by Republicans. Now they are rushing to pass their $2 trillion bill which is more about funding pet-projects and special interest groups and less about fighting the coronavirus, getting children back in classrooms and putting Americans back to work.”

Congress has already approved $6 trillion for COVID relief - $1.3 trillion of which remains unspent. Of this $2 trillion bill, less than nine percent goes directly to fighting COVID through public health initiatives. The most concerning elements include: 

• Directing $350 billion to bailout states like New York, California and Illinois at the expense of states that are open like Florida,
• Providing another $127 billion for schools with no requirements for schools to actually reopen (According to the CBO only $6 billion of this will be spent in 2021).
• Spending taxpayer funding for abortions and abortion providers, Earmarking $112 million for an underground subway for Big Tech’s employees, in Silicon Valley, 
• Spending nearly a billion in foreign aid, and
• Providing hundreds of millions for endowments for the arts and humanities.

“I will vote against this bloated bill in which only a fraction of the funding is related directly to fighting the COVID pandemic. This bill needs to be cut back and focused on providing relief to those who have lost jobs or suffered because of the pandemic rather than a Christmas tree that funds every liberal special interest group.”