House members return to Washington this week to vote on the economic stimulus bill that was just passed in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree thinks the House will follow suit. Unlike the Senate, which passed the measure by unanimous consent, Pingree says House members are traveling back to the Capitol to cast their votes. She expects there will be opposition to the measure, but not enough to defeat the bill.
“The days of unanimous consent in the House are probably numbered. We don’t expect to have unanimous consent on the bill this week. We are going back to physically be there.” And she says this won't be the end of it. There will be additional bills to address the economic impact of the coronavirus.
“I know we will have to go back and do this again, but we have to keep this money moving if we are going to keep our economy even close to stable and keep people paid until we see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Senate-passed measure provides increased funding for the Paycheck Protection Program of $310 billion. It also would boost a separate small-business emergency grant and loan program by $60 billion, direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program.
“We now have language that says small farms can apply for it so that will be an important message for them. We didn’t get everything we wanted in the bill. We pushed hard for money for state and local governments.”
