Echoing his House Republican colleagues, U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler said this past week that Congress should wait “a few weeks” before considering a fourth legislative package addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Reschenthaler, R-Peters, noted that the direct payments from the last $2 trillion stimulus package haven’t been sent to Americans yet, and said that Congress should at least see what’s needed when the impacts of their previous legislative efforts are known.
In a telephone town hall with constituents, the 14th District representative said he’d be supportive of a large transportation and infrastructure package, which President Donald Trump has been pushing in the early stages of negotiations. Mr. Trump said at a press briefing on Friday that since the country is “borrowing at zero,” now is the time — without interest costs — to fix roads, highways, tunnels and airports.
Pennsylvania’s bridges and roads need to be upgraded, Mr. Reschenthaler said, and in his Western Pennsylvania district, locks and dams are crumbling. An effective infrastructure bill, too, would include an expansion of rural broadband access, he added — as “this pandemic shows how important it is to have internet connectivity.”
Mr. Reschenthaler also floated the idea of more direct payments to Americans, and warned Democrats against stuffing the bill with “green energy initiatives” that he said aren’t relevant to the pandemic and won’t provide citizens with true relief.
“[House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want to have initiatives that include green energy,” Mr. Reschenthaler said. “I think that's counterproductive. I don’t think we're going to win this through windmills and solar panels."
He repeated these warnings on a radio show in Philadelphia late this past week, claiming that Democrats are trying to use the coronavirus crisis to “socialize the economy” and turn the stimulus package into a “Green New Deal extravaganza.”
Ms. Pelosi told CNN this past week that the next package should include more assistance to state and local governments and to the National Institutes of Health. According to the New York Times, she wants to put an extra $10 billion into community health centers and deploy federal grants to pay for drinking water and wastewater utility bills in low-income households, among other things.
In his town hall, Mr. Reschenthaler also told his constituents that Congress should be back in session, and without rank-and-file members in Washington to discuss proposals, key decision-making is being left to the “big four” in leadership — Ms. Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in coordination with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Allowing members to vote remotely is not the answer, Mr. Reschenthaler insisted — saying that if lawmakers can’t assemble to participate in the committee process, they have to use text messages and letters to get their views across to leadership.
The "beating heart of our democracy" is on the House floor, he said.
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952, Twitter @julianrouth.
First Published: April 5, 2020, 4:00 a.m.
