Pascrell Announces Support of Lifeline for Hospitals, Small Businesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) announced that he would vote in favor of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.

“Across New Jersey, our doctors, nurses, and first responders have been heroes. They have risked their lives to keep our communities alive and today’s package is for them,” said Rep. Pascrell. “The funding in this bill for expanded testing, hospitals, and small businesses is a victory in our fight against this virus.

“The United States will soon cross one million infections and fifty thousand deaths. Over 26 million of our fellow citizens are unemployed. Food assistance applications are up 40 percent. Nearly one-third of renters couldn’t make their April rent. Our states are being bled into bankruptcy.

“These grim figures are the direct fruit of a catastrophic response that has failed America. We have felt that failure in my state. The other side has used this crisis to hold a gun to the head of the American economy and the  American people and has prioritized big business and corporate greed above all other urgencies. Our unemployed neighbors, shuttered small businesses, state and local governments, and even our hospitals and first responders have been treated as afterthoughts by this administration and forced to fight over crumbs that fell off the table. There are reports that life-saving equipment is being seized and routed to states favored by the administration. Yesterday the Senate Majority Leader openly bragged about denying aid to my state.

“So I am gratified to provide this aid today to the heroes in my state. But I am also finished with moving piecemeal and letting our hospitals and first responders wrestle for scraps. Democrats will fight with ferocity to see that measures giving Americans the support they need to defeat this pandemic and rebuild are not concessions but nonnegotiable necessities, and that they are passed into law before it is too late. We cannot have economic recovery until we get ahead of this virus.”

The bill advancing today includes $75 Billion for hospitals, $25 Billion for testing, $50 Billion in small business disaster loans, and $310 Billion for the small business Paycheck Protection Program, including $60 Billion set aside for small and medium size lenders and credit unions.