FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

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McConnell’s ‘Skinny Relief’ Bill Rightfully Flops in the Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tried to shove a ‘skinny relief’ bill through the Senate. Luckily, the bill failed. 

The fact is, it was never a serious proposal. During a pandemic and economic crisis, the focus of any relief bill must be to help struggling families, newly unemployed people, frontline workers, and small businesses fighting to stay afloat. McConnell’s bill did none of that. Never one to miss an opportunity to put the wealthy over everyone else, McConnell didn’t just fail to provide help to those who needed it — he also wedged in legal immunity for corporations putting employees and patrons at undue risk of contracting COVID-19 into the bill. 

Tax March Executive Director Maura Quint issued the following response:

“Between a simultaneous economic crisis and pandemic with no end in sight, we are in a moment that has demanded every American’s full fortitude just to get from one day to the next. 

The HEROES Act passed the House on May 15th. Four months of inaction later, Senate Republicans handed the American people an empty plate and told us to eat up. Shame on Mitch McConnell, and every senator who supported this so-called “relief” bill. 

Look around: the American people don’t need Congress to protect corporate interests and issue tax credits for private school tuition. We need money in our pockets, we need robust and ongoing unemployment benefits for nearly 30 million unemployed Americans, and we need to bail out the small businesses that are the fabric of our communities. We don’t need skinny relief. This pandemic is devouring the American people — act like it, Sen. McConnell.”