Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. North American Wetlands Conservation Extension Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cole for yielding me the time.
I agree with Chairman McGovern that we need to help the American people. There are still people hurting out there, and they need help from us.
That is why it is so frustrating to me that we have this bill in front of us because it is just a very similar version to the partisan bill that the Democrats pushed out of here just a few months ago that they know is not going to get anywhere.
I remember seeing in the media how Democrats in the House in swing districts were asking, pleading with Speaker Pelosi, to please negotiate with the Republicans and the President to actually get a bill that will be passed and signed into law because, after all, you all know that if you really want to help the American people, you have to have a bill that is actually able to get signed into law, and this bill is not it.
Unfortunately, this bill, once again, highlights a lot of the priorities that my Democratic colleagues have that have nothing to do with coronavirus, quite frankly.
One of the things that I found very interesting in this bill is that, in the original Heroes Act that was passed a few months ago, they had $600 million in there for the COPS hiring program. That is to help State and local law enforcement. Curiously enough, it is not in this version of the bill.
So I was wondering, is this how they are planning to save some money on the bill, to take away funding for police and law enforcement?
Also in this bill, once again, is extending the extra $600 a week in unemployment assistance into the beginning and through spring of next year. Well, many businesses, multiple businesses, have told us that they are having trouble hiring workers back because workers are getting paid more to stay at home and not work. This is right here in that bill, in this bill, right now.
We cannot pay people more to stay home and not work. We need to incentivize them to come back to work.
This bill also allows illegal immigrants to get $1,200 stimulus checks and their children $500 stimulus checks. That is right here in this language, right here in this bill. American citizens, my taxpayers in Arizona, do not want to subsidize illegal immigrants.
This bill also removes safeguards in the Paycheck Protection Program.
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Mrs. LESKO. This bill also removes any protections from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. That is right here in this bill.
This bill, as Representative Cole also said, federalizes elections. In fact, it prohibits States from requiring voter ID. Arizona requires voter ID. This bill would take that away.
It also legalizes ballot harvesting. Arizona opposed--the legislature said no ballot harvesting. This would bring it right back, right here in this bill.
Again, it would also provide tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires in blue States that require taxpayers in low-tax States, like Arizona, to subsidize them.
That is why we can't support this bill. There are too many poison pills. Please come up with something that we can agree on to help the American people.
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