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WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) delivered remarks on the House floor in which she called for robust direct cash payments for the American people to be included as part of any COVID relief package.
A full transcript of her remarks, as delivered, is available below.
Transcript: Rep. Pressley Calls for Robust Direct Cash Payments for the People
U.S. House of Representatives
December 17, 2020
Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people.
The people who are struggling and feel abandoned by their government during this crisis.
I rise in solidarity with every parent who has struggled to buy diapers and formula. Every family behind on rent or crushed by the grief of an empty chair at the kitchen table.
Our people are crying out sick, tired, hungry and broken.
The people we have taken an oath to serve and protect need direct cash to survive the winter. We must send them survival checks immediately.
Some of my colleagues are patting themselves on the back for sending corporations payouts—corporations, by the way, who have profited off of people during this pandemic—and shaming families on the edge. Shame on them, their theatrics and their callousness.
450 pennies a day for the last nine months. That’s what our government has sent the American people to weather this crisis. And nothing for the immigrant families who drive our essential workforce.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Our families deserve direct cash, real survival checks.
$600 is hardly sufficient—it is an insult. We must act to save lives now.
The pandemic has not discriminated in its hardship, but it would seem compassion and empathy have.
Thank you, I yield.
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