Lightfoot: COVID compromise 'unacceptable'
Chicago mayor blasts ‘heartless’ McConnell in pursuit of relief for cities, states
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says a $750 billion COVID-19 relief compromise bill is “absolutely unacceptable” without including aid to cities and states. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Chicago’s mayor rejected a diminished, watered-down $750 billion compromise bill for coronavirus relief in Congress as “absolutely unacceptable” this week, given its failure to include COVID-19 aid for cities and states.
Speaking Tuesday at a media event, Lightfoot didn’t blame the incoming Biden administration, but wondered aloud about “what’s going on in the Senate.” Instead, she criticized “the heartless Mitch McConnell” for blocking the relief for state and local governments in his role as Senate majority leader
“I’m very disappointed about what I’m seeing as the developments,” Lightfoot said. “I don’t know that that’s the Biden administration as much as it’s what’s going on in the Senate.”
McConnell has never acted on the $3 trillion HEROES Act passed by the U.S. House in May, nor on the smaller $2 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by the House in October. Instead, the Republican has pushed for liability for companies and corporations against lawsuits filed over the pandemic, and has recently used that demand to take both COVID liability and state and local relief off the table in the $748 billion compromise package now being debated in Congress.
Gov. Pritzker accepted that compromise Tuesday, while holding out hope for a more ambitious relief package once President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next month. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin also endorsed the compromise Tuesday on the Senate floor, although he didn’t hold back on criticizing the deal to drop both liability and relief for cities and states.
“Ten of us — five Democrats, five Republicans — as well as House members decided three weeks ago that enough was enough. We need to show some leadership and try to work out a compromise between us for another COVID relief package,” Durbin said on the Senate floor. “It has been nine months since we passed what is known at the CARES Act on the floor of the Senate — 96-0. Overwhelmingly, unanimous, bipartisan decision to spend about $3 trillion not only to fight the pandemic, but to restore our economy.
“We thought that the threat of the pandemic would soon ebb away,” he added, “but it did not. It wasn’t gone in six months. It isn’t gone today. In fact, in some places in America, it’s worse now than ever … so this group of 10 have been meeting for three weeks. … We did produce a work product and one that I think is worthy of consideration immediately on the floor of the Senate.” Durbin called on McConnell to call the bill immediately, although talks reportedly continued into Tuesday evening including both McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lightfoot rejected the compromise in no uncertain terms. “This virus has had a disastrous impact on economies — local, state — all across the country,” she said. “The notion that somehow a package would move and get to the president’s desk or signature and there would be zero relief for state and local governments is absolutely unacceptable.”
Lightfoot put Chicago’s losses in tax revenue due to the pandemic and mitigation measures to minimize it at $800 million. Pritzker said Tuesday that the state’s losses were $4 billion, with half that in the current fiscal year since the end of June.
Like Pritzker, Lightfoot separated out losses due to lost tax revenue in the pandemic from other long-term shortfalls, like pension obligations. “This has nothing to do with longtime, legacy fiscal issues,” she said. “It has to do with the fact that COVID-19 has wrecked our economy. And the notion that we are supposed to just stand here with nothing — no hope from the federal government — and accept that as OK? No. Absolutely not.”
She laid the blame directly on McConnell, saying, “If we give in to the heartless Mitch McConnell on so many issues, where is the floor? We are setting a dangerous precedent for the future that will make the new administration’s work that much harder. Because what it says is, if Mitch McConnell draws the line — no matter how unreasonable — we are going to capitulate to that heartless man who has done so much to harm this country.”
Hundreds of bills passed by the House remain pending in the Senate, which has been called McConnell’s legislative “graveyard.”
Durbin wasn’t quite as direct, but laid out a similar argument on the Senate floor. He bemoaned how COVID-19 relief for local governments had been dropped from the compromise bill, saying, “State and local government assistance I support completely. I know what the cities, my counties, and what my state have gone through. They need our help.”
He concluded by taking on McConnell, saying, “And finally, the issue of liability and immunity from liability. This is one raised by Sen. McConnell for months. He basically said that nothing is moving until he gets a provision, which I find objectionable, originally offered by Sen. (John) Cornyn. Here’s what it comes down to — should people be able to go to court if they believe they have been harmed or members of their family have died as a result of the wrongdoing by people during this COVID-19 pandemic? … We should leave the possibility open that those responsible for their actions need to be held accountable in court.”
Durbin touted that the compromise does include 16 more weeks of unemployment insurance, including so-called gig workers under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, along with replenishing the Paycheck Protection Program, extension of the national eviction moratorium through January, and additional funding for COVID-19 testing and vaccine distribution, as well as increased funding for food stamps and for public transportation.
Congressional negotiations continue, with the outside possibility that aid for local governments as well as restaurants and bars under the Restaurants Act could be included at the 11th hour before Congress recesses for the year as part of an omnibus spending bill.