The highly contentious election polarized elected officials on a relief bill. Now that campaigning has ended, it seems that everyone finally agrees... the pandemic is not over; relief is needed.
In a meeting with our team and FL constituents, Rick Scott's senior counsel told us that Senator Scott thinks a relief bill needs to be passed immediately and that it should include unemployment provisions (he called for 100% wage replacement), an eviction moratorium, and more. He also thinks it needs to be a long term solution because the pandemic will not be over soon. We were surprised to hear this out of his office considering how opposed he has been to spending. This gives us hope.
Senator Mitch McConnell has also come out and reversed course on his earlier statement that he didn't think relief should happen until January. Yesterday he said we need a relief bill before the end of the year. He called it "job one" when the Senate returns. Speaker Pelosi had been pushing for relief before the election and we know she still considers it a top priority, though she demands that it be a comprehensive solution.
Additionally, there is a general consensus in the both the Senate and House, on both sides of the aisle that a relief bill needs to be done. Other elected officials are speaking up about it. While writing this, another tweet came in with a letter Representative Cindy Axne wrote to leadership demanding a relief bill. Senator Rob Portman quickly followed suit with a tweet saying we need bipartisan relief. They are not the first and won't be the last. This is all encouraging progress.
Why are they all finally pushing for relief? Because of your work. Your voices are being heard every day and now that the election roar is subsiding, the need for relief is even louder.
There is not yet a consensus on what that bill should contain. We need to make sure our elected officials hear what we need in this bill from us. We have not seen where and who will compromise yet. Our asks are here.
Now is the time for a reinvigorated push. As the Senators and House members return to DC we need to make sure they know we are still here, we are disappointed they left AGAIN without a relief bill, and we DEMAND that a relief bill that is comprehensive be passed immediately. We need to flood them with calls. Join us on November 10th, the Senate's first working day back in DC. Let's Jam the Lines. ExtendPUA.org/JamTheLines. We will start calling on November 10th and we will not stop until a relief bill is passed.
We know you’re exhausted - we are, too. We shouldn’t have to beg for urgent assistance from the government that we fund, and neither should you. But we’re not backing down. And we need your energy and voices now more than ever.
Over the last two months, ExtendPUA has made the case for immediate relief in constituent meetings with over 30 Democratic and Republican Senate offices. And there’s only one thing that every single office seemed to agree on: “This is a priority for the Senator.” We are going to demand payment on that lip service.
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