Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern (D-MA) today opened debate on the rule for the Senate-passed American Rescue Plan Act to get this historic bill to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

This legislation will help crush the coronavirus, return children safely to the classroom, get vaccines to the people, put dollars into families’ pockets, and put people back to work.

Chairman McGovern’s remarks are below:

“M. Speaker, a once-in-a century pandemic brought us the need to act. And a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President have seized the moment - not as a chance to help big corporations or the already well-off, as those on the other side have done over and over again, but as an opportunity to invest in our workers, our students, and our communities. In the very people who need help the most.”

“This is more than a band aid - this is a lifeline M, Speaker.”

“It will put more vaccines in arms, put more kids back safely in schools, put more money in people’s pockets, and put more people back to work. It’s hard to overstate just how important that is.”

“This bill, M. Speaker, attacks inequality and poverty in ways we haven’t seen for a generation. This legislation makes the biggest investments in our workers and in the middle class that I have seen in my two-and-a-half decades of service here.”

“Make no mistake - I’m disappointed to see the cut in unemployment insurance made over in the Senate, and we are going to keep fighting to raise the minimum wage, so that no one who works full time lives in poverty. We are going to keep focusing on the hunger crisis in this country until we end it once and for all. These should be fundamental priorities of the wealthiest nation on the planet.”

“But let’s be clear: today, we are on the doorstep of history. We are about to send the most sweeping and progressive economic investment in modern times to the president of the United States.”

“Democrats on both sides of the Capitol, together with the Biden administration, have crafted something historic. And in one day, with a single vote in favor of this bill, we will change the lives of millions of Americans for the better.”

“For all of our important work; day in and day out – we don’t get many chances like this. I urge all my colleagues to join me in voting for this rule and the underlying Rescue Plan. Let us rise and meet this moment, and let’s send this historic bill to the president’s desk for his signature.”

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