North American Wetlands Conservation Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairwoman and commend her for putting together a bill which, while it reduces the amount of money from the original Heroes Act, in my opinion, because of the lessons we have learned in the last few weeks, improves the Heroes Act because of what we have learned.

I know that is not an easy task, Madam Chair. I know that is not an easy task, what you have accomplished here today, so I want to congratulate you.

I also want to say, in response to my colleague on the other side from Ohio, this is a serious attempt to put something forward that we believe that the Republicans can support. Now, maybe they are not going to do it today.

But I just want to say that our Speaker--when I say ``our,'' I mean the Speaker, because she is, you know, the Speaker for the entire House and the entire country--has worked so hard over the last few weeks and months to try to come together with the Republicans. She just met yesterday, and maybe even today again, with Mr. Mnuchin from the White House.

To suggest in any way that this is anything other than a serious attempt by Democrats to put forward something that we think the Republicans can ultimately adopt, or come close to what they would ultimately support, I think is unfortunate because that is what we are doing here today.

I want to go back to what Speaker Pelosi said earlier when she said that what we are really trying to do is crush the virus, and I want to talk about that because much of that language that would accomplish that comes from the Energy and Commerce Committee that I chair.

This is the United States of America. I know we are elected from individual districts, but we come here to represent the whole country. The fact of the matter is the only way that we can crush this virus and end this pandemic is if we work together on a national level to accomplish it.

So what we say in the Heroes Act, both the old one and the new one, is that we need a national plan, and we need a way to bring forth that national plan.

What is happening now is every State competes. I get so mad when I watch the TV and they say Ohio is doing better this week, or New Jersey is doing worse this week. That is not what this is about.

This has to be a united effort. It is the United States of America. And that is not what we have right now because each State is competing, competing for testing, competing for medical supplies, deciding on an individual basis. The hospitals even compete between themselves, and that is not the way it should be.

What we say in the Heroes Act, and it is carried forth again in this legislation today, is a national plan, someone in charge at a national level--I will call it a supply czar for the supply chain--that sets parameters, if you will, for how to crush the virus, guidelines for the schools, for how you should wear a mask, not necessarily all the details, but essentially a national plan, and then delivers the testing supplies, the medical supplies, and, ultimately, the vaccine.

One of the things that is such an improvement in this bill is not only do we continue the $75 billion for testing and contact tracing and quarantine, but we also provide another $25 or $26 billion for distribution, development, and awareness of the vaccine when it is eventually developed because, again, this has to be done equitably. It has to be done nationally. That is what I really want to stress today.

I don't necessarily need to use all my time, Madam Speaker, because I want to stress that we have to do this together, and that is what this bill puts forward.

Let me just say, in addition to that, because I do want to mention a few other things, we have $2 billion in new funding to get essential workers their protective personal and work equipment that they need.

We also have new provisions to address insurance companies declining to cover COVID testing. In the CARES Act, we said that everyone should be able to get a test for free, no out-of-pocket expense.

The bill extends that to the treatment, to the drugs and the vaccine. But the insurance companies, in many cases, are not doing that. So we want to make it quite clear that they have to cover it free, and there is no out-of-pocket expense. And that would be true for the treatment; that would be true for the vaccination as well.

Again, we are one country. I can't stress that enough.

Now, the other thing that is a major problem, and I want to mention it briefly, is the ability to connect to the internet because the bottom line right now is if you are not in school and you are learning remotely, or you are working remotely, you need to have an internet connection.

There is a lot of inequality with that around the country, too, so the legislation addresses the digital divide by providing $12 billion to schools and libraries for distance learning, for remote learning.

We also continue to help low-income households afford internet service by saying they have to have a discount for service by $50 a month. We have to continue and enhance the lifeline program, which helps people of low income pay the bills for those internet connections.

The last thing I want to mention also is that, finally, we also prevent the shutoffs for any kind of utilities, water service, and other shutoffs, because that is important as well.

So I thank the chair again for the time.

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