By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, Illinois’s Senior U.S. Senator is calling on lawmakers to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package with only weeks left until unemployment benefits run out.
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin says President Biden’s ‘American Rescue Plan’ is needed while 730,000 Americans filed for unemployment this week.
“If we don’t break the back of this pandemic, we’re not going to get this economy reopened again. We’re not going to get our kids back in school; we’re not going to get to see our grandkids we want to, our children our grandkids. We’re not going to see America return to what we all desperately want it to return to.”
Democrats aim to pass the plan on Friday that would provide stimulus checks in the form of $1,400 for Americans under an income threshold with control over the House. Sen. Durbin says the relief package is needed now more than ever.
“I hear my colleagues come to the floor and really raise the question if this is needed. I just heard the speech of Minority Leader Sen. McConnell. But, what President Biden wants to do to deal with this pandemic as we know it, and as it is likely to evolve is to provide $25 billion more for the vaccination program. Does anyone doubt the need for that? I don’t.
Back in December, Sen. Durbin helped spearhead a $900 billion bipartisan COVID-relief package that did not include stimulus checks to Americans. Durbin says this package includes $1,400 checks.
WATCH: Sen. Dick Durbin speaks on the Senate floor.
My Republican colleagues seem to think that COVID-19 is already behind us. But this is still a national crisis. And we must respond by passing President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. pic.twitter.com/CV9urk5TLB
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) February 25, 2021
The House of Representatives could vote on the measure sometime Friday.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
