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As you may know, Congress has been working remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak. On March 27, April 23 and May 15, however, we returned to Washington to vote on legislation addressing the virus. The first two times we came back to Washington for a vote, we passed bipartisan legislation that provided financial relief to businesses and employees and gave additional resources, such as personal protective equipment and testing capabilities, to hospitals and other health care providers.
Earlier this week, we were told that we would be voting on another COVID-19 relief bill. Upon reading the bill text, I quickly realized that this was NOT a bill to help Americans recover from the virus, but a bloated bill containing many progressive initiatives that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other far-left members of Congress have been pushing for years, extensions of poorly though-out programs from previous legislation and new provisions that have nothing to do with the current crisis, including:
- More money for food stamps and removing work requirements to receive them.
- Extension of the additional $600 per month for unemployment insurance, which means many people will be making more money to stay unemployed than they would if they went back to work, which disincentivizes work and will further delay our economic recovery.
- Bailouts for states and localities that were mismanaged before COVID-19.
- Ideas taken straight from the Green New Deal.
- Student loan debt forgiveness.
- Removal of protections for hospitals from frivolous lawsuits.
- Removal of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, which will provide a financial windfall for wealthy high-tax state elites and incentivize these states to continue their squeeze on everyone else.
- No further clarification for businesses applying for the Paycheck Protection Program.
- Federal control of elections, taking sovereignty away from states.
I voted no on this bill because it would take away rights from Wisconsinites and saddle our country with more debt. The House passed a $1.3 trillion relief bill on April 23, the largest disaster relief bill in our country's history, and less than a month later, we were told to vote for another $3 trillion bill. Luckily, this bill is not likely to pass the Senate and President Trump has indicated that he will not sign it into law. |
| Direct Aid to State and Local Governments |
The above bill will likely not be signed into law, but Congress has passed four COVID-19 relief bills that have already been signed into law by President Trump, which have provided $765 billion to state and local governments throughout America to assist in COVID-19-related emergency spending. That is in addition to the over $1 trillion spent to keep businesses running and medical supplies and personal protective equipment supplied to health care providers.
Here is a short list of where some of this money for state and local governments has gone.
Still, some of my Democratic colleagues in the House have claimed that the federal government has not given state and local governments sufficient financial assistance. Something to keep in mind is that the federal government does not have a stockpile of cash that they are able to dole out on command. In reality, we are over $25 trillion in debt. So, when Congress spends more money than the government takes in (deficit spending), the U.S. Treasury has to put more money into circulation, which causes inflation and decreases the value of each single dollar. For example, if you have a bank account with $10,000 today and Congress passes a bill tomorrow that requires the Treasury to print more money, your $10,000 does not have as much buying power than it did yesterday, essentially meaning you've lost money.
That is just one reason we need to balance the budget and get our spending under control. As your Representative, I will continue working to ensure your taxpayer dollars provide necessary relief for those affected by COVID-19 while remaining cognizant that we cannot sustain this out-of-control government spending. |
| Proxy Voting for Congress |
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives work both in their home district and in Washington. When at home, it is our job to talk to citizens to see what issues are facing our community and businesses to find out what roadblocks they face and how we can work to remove them. In Washington, we discuss the things we've learned back home with other members and trade ideas on how to best solve these problems. Not only do we interact with other Members of Congress during official business, like committee hearings, but we see each other in the halls and speak when voting on the House floor. While the media portrays Washington in a completely partisan manner, most of the bills passed in Congress are done so in bipartisan fashion, and I think this is largely due to the fact that we see and interact with each other in-person.
On Friday, the House passed a resolution that will allow Congress to vote by proxy. This means that one member would be able to vote in place of other members. I have three primary concerns with this idea:
- By allowing members to give their power to vote away to others, this will greatly increase the power of House leadership. Each member of Congress represents the interests of their constituents with the power to vote, and by giving that away, they will be giving away the voice of the people they represent.
- As I mentioned above, Republican and Democrat Members of Congress will inherently have less interaction with each other, which, I believe, will lead to a decrease in bipartisanship.
- After we take votes, the media is usually waiting for us to come off of the House floor to talk to us about why we voted as we did. If fewer people are voting, then the media will have fewer perspectives on why it was important to vote for or against a certain bill, which would be a disservice to the American people.
I voted against this resolution, and hope that we will be able to return to Washington quickly to safely resume working on your behalf, in person, as our founding fathers intended. You can click on the picture below to view my floor speech on this resolution.
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May is National Military Appreciation Month. Thank you to the courageous men and women in every branch of our military who sacrifice so much to defend our freedom.
Wednesday was Third Shift Workers Day. Thanks to those who keep the Sixth District's economy running 24 hours a day!
Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Joan. Thank you for all of your love and support, I’m lucky to have you!
This week we celebrated School Nurse Day. Many thanks to the school nurses who care for the health and well-being of our students throughout Wisconsin.
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As your Congressman, I’m here to serve you. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to my offices in Fond du Lac and Washington. If you enjoyed this newsletter be sure to forward it to your family and friends so they can stay informed on what I’m doing in Washington and the Sixth District.
You can also stay up-to-the-minute by following me on Facebook (Congressman Glenn Grothman), Twitter (@RepGrothman) and Instagram (@RepGlennGrothman).
Sincerely,
Member of Congress
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