The Republican opposition to the $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus package focuses primarily on the argument that it contains wasteful spending. Senator Rick Scott, R-Naples, picked out two examples during a CBS News interview.
“Less than 1 percent of this bill is about the vaccine,” Scott said on March 1. ‘It’s about a bridge for Chuck Schumer, a tunnel for Nancy Pelosi. This is about repaying liberal politicians. It is not about making our country normal again. ”
The 1 percent figure for vaccines is about right. The $ 20 billion in the U.S. Vaccine Rescue Plan and its distribution may sound like a lot, but at more than $ 1 trillion in unemployment and incentive controls for individuals and aid to state and local governments, it seems small.
Scott goes a little further and uses infrastructure money in the bill to paint most of the package as wrong political pork. He is repeat a Republican talk point.
The legislation does contain money for the examples he has chosen.
First, the bridge: the bill would give $ 1.5 million to the Great Lakes St. connects the states of New York and Ontario.
New York is home to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. And it would be easy to point out that his fingerprints appear on this part of the bill, except for one important detail.
The Trump administration first proposed spending this money.
In May 2020, the Department of Transport asked for funds to make up toll revenue that “decreased dramatically” due to the reduced traffic of the pandemic, the New York Daily News rexported. The Canadians have put in their share of emergency relief, and the US is going to do its part.
The American side of it sits in the district Rep.Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., a key defender of former President Donald Trump during his first indictment.
As for the tunnel, although the bill does not mention a project in the Nancy Pelosi District of the House of California, it has $ 1.425 billion for federal capital investment grants for mass transit. Some of it is intended for an extension of the 6-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit system, which connects San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding suburbs.
But like the bridge money, this project also dates from the Trump administration. In August 2019, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced $ 125 million for the expansion.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the current bill finances the larger mass transit program, and this project is among those that have already received approval. He also noted that although the transportation system serves the entire region, this work takes place 50 km from Pelosi’s district.
Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis noted that Democrats prefer to include these elements in the bill, and its origins do not matter.
In any case, compared to the total price of the account, these elements amount to a fraction of a fraction of 1 percent of the total account.
For that context, according to calculations by Republicans of the House, nearly 50 percent of the bill goes beyond what they consider legal COVID-19 and economic relief.
Recent pandemic relief bills have included both health and economic stimulus elements. Most Republicans voted for it. Scott’s record is mixed. He is voting for the March CARES law and against the December supplementary aid package.
Our verdict
Scott said the $ 1.9 billion aid package is about a bridge for Chuck Schumer, a tunnel for Nancy Pelosi. ‘
The bill has money for a bridge between New York and Ontario and for a mass transportation project in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is difficult to bind them only to Schumer and Pelosi because the Trump administration supported both efforts well before the current bill was passed.
Scott selected and mischarged some examples of the total expenditure of the bill. Even Republicans say about 50 percent are going to help households and businesses deal with the damage of the pandemic.
We judge Scott’s claim mostly false.