After dismissing a $1.8 trillion bipartisan Senate bill aimed at relieving the millions of Americans affected by the Wuhan coronavirus Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sneaked non-related, radical Democratic wish-list items into her own COVID-19 bill.
The Senate canceled recess to work at breakneck speed because people need help now.
Pelosi waltzes in after the House has been on a week long vacation and says they’re going to do their own thing and the Senate’s Monday urgency is arbitrary.
Just wild. https://t.co/6PHS7y4YE2
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 22, 2020
Among other non-coronavirus additions, this 1,400-page bill includes a number of provisions related to elections, such as state grants “to conduct risk-limiting audits” of federal elections, mandated access to early voting, and same-day voter registration.
While countless small businesses across the country are being forced to close their doors, some permanently with others laying off employees, Pelosi’s bill also seeks to bail out the U.S. Postal Service.
“Any outstanding debt of the United States Postal Service owed to the Treasury … on the date of the enactment of this Act is hereby cancelled,” the bill reads.
Pelosi’s Wuhan virus bill also includes woke racial and sex aims such as “corporate board diversity” requirements and “pay equity” between men and women as well as white employees and minorities.
https://twitter.com/rachelbovard/status/1242118555107196933
In addition to intersectional aims, the bill tackles lofty climate change goals, demanding airlines “fully offset the annual carbon emissions … for domestic flights beginning in 2025” and giving passengers information “regarding greenhouse gas emissions resulting from each individual flight.” Meanwhile, because of the global pandemic this bill purports to address, the State Department has issued a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory, the highest-level warning, which “advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.” While Pelosi slides Green New Deal-like hokum into an urgent public health bill, most international travel has been halted, domestic air travel has become a “virtual shutdown,” and many cruise lines have canceled operations — making the green provisions even more impertinent.
Further, the bill pushes collective bargaining for federal workers and changes to the IRS code for retirement plans for community journalists, two irrelevant points relative to the health crisis at hand.
In a call that included 200 members of the House Democratic caucus Thursday, lawmakers brainstormed their progressive non-COVID-19-related wish list to be included in the COVID-19 relief bill. Their ideas spanned increased Social Security benefits, extra funding for infrastructure, and in the event the Wuhan virus stretches into the November election timeline, funding for state-run, all-mail voting programs.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision,” Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said to the caucus members, according to a source on the call.
As millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet and look to their elected officials for direction and hope, House Democrats remain steadfast in their opposition to President Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP and in their dedication to pushing a radical progressive policy agenda, no matter the cost to their hurting constituents.
