Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez listens to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last week in Queens, New York.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told reporters on Monday that she would vote against an interim deal on coronavirus response funding, saying that it leaves too many important priorities on the table while allowing Republican priorities to move along unimpeded.
The $450 billion deal, an interim extension of some programs from the CARES Act, will reportedly include $350 billion more for disaster loans and forgivable Paycheck Protction Program (PPP) loans for small businesses, along with $75 billion more for hospitals to defray costs and $25 billion to surge testing. Republicans wanted the additional small business loans to move forward by itself, but Democratic leaders demanded more testing and money for hospitals as “concessions.”
Democrats also asked for money for state and local governments whose budgets are crashing amid significant lost revenue; Republicans blocked that for the bill. On the press call, which included not just Ocasio-Cortez but Progressive Caucus co-chairs Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Squad members Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the left-wing members rattled off a series of priorities, including direct payroll support for workers, rent cancellations and broader eviction moratoria, hazard pay and emergency temporary workplace standards for essential workers, postal service funding, vote-by-mail guarantees, and expansions of health coverage for everyone during the pandemic.
None of those appear to be in the bill, which Ocasio-Cortez derided as incrementalism. “We have not seen the final text of this bill, but what I can say is that if it matches up with what has been reported, I will not support this bill personally,” Ocasio-Cortez said in response to a question from the Prospect.
The legislation is likely to come up for a vote in both chambers of Congress this week. Democratic leaders have said that this package would just be an interim extension while work continues on a fourth coronavirus package, sometimes called CARES Act 2. But Republicans will have received the corporate bailout measures they sought in the first CARES Act, and the extension of small business support they really wanted as well, and would have little incentive to budge on Democratic priorities.
“It is insulting to think that we can pass such a small amount of money in the context of not knowing when Congress is even going to reconvene … pat ourselves on the back, and then leave town again,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She represents the area of Queens and the Bronx that has thus far been the district most impacted by coronavirus infections in the entire country.
“I understand that we keep being told that this is going to be happening in the House bill, when the Democrat-led bill is going to be bigger,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “But in my district, and in New York City and in our community, we have had more deaths that 9/11. Multiple times of 9/11 have happened in the time since Congress has recessed. So I’m not here with the luxury of time.”
Other members on the call were more noncommittal, though Jayapal did say that “we have real concerns about giving away leverage now without getting the priorities we need,” and added the next couple days would be important to influence the direction of the legislation.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke on the House floor against the first CARES Act, though she did not join with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in seeking a recorded vote on that legislation, which passed by voice vote. Getting a recorded vote would have required 44 members to back Massie, and no more than a handful were willing to do that. Ocasio-Cortez said she had discussions with independent Justin Amash (I-MI) about seeking a recorded vote, and ultimately determined that it was futile. She added on Monday that her constituents were upset about the first CARES Act, which included a corporate bailout that the Federal Reserve can build to as much as $4.5 trillion, and continue to be upset about being short-changed in the crisis response.
“I need legislation that is going to save people’s lives,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “As someone that has to make calls every single day to sons and daughters and widows and parishioners and church leaders and community boards, giving them my condolences every single day about people in our community who are dying, I am not here for a $5 bill. I’m not. And I will not insult my community with one.”
