Joyce Joins Bipartisan Call for House Leadership to Immediately Resume COVID-19 Relief Negotiations

BAINBRIDGE – Today, Congressman Dave Joyce (OH-14) joined 17 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle in sending a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, urging them to immediately resume negotiations to confront the health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are writing to urge you to immediately resume negotiations for a relief package to confront the dual public health and economic crises Americans are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the members of Congress wrote. “During times of national emergencies, the American people look to elected officials to set aside their differences and take action through a sense of shared purpose and direction. The time for excuses has passed: Congress must work together and find compromise to jumpstart the process. We recognize that negotiating such a significant legislative proposal is difficult but failing to reach a deal is unacceptable and is a failure of duty to the American people.”

Although the House is scheduled to reconvene this weekend, House leadership has indicated no plans to restart negotiations on COVID-19 legislation while members are in Washington. Meanwhile, more than 170,000 Americans have died from the virus, many hospitals are seeing another spike in cases, millions of businesses remain shuttered or restricted in their operations, state and local governments are facing significant revenue shortfalls, and more than 30 million Americans are still without a job.

Led by Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02), the letter was signed by a total of ten Democrats and eight Republicans, including: Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Stephanie Murphy (FL-07), Mike Kelly (PA-16), Ben McAdams (UT-04), John Katko (NY-24), Joe Cunningham (SC-01), Anthony Brindisi (NY-22), Anthony Gonzalez (OH-16), Susie Lee (NV-03), Mark Amodei (NV-02), Tim Ryan (OH-13), Jaime Hererra Beutler (WA-03), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Fred Upton (MI-06), Max Rose (NY-11), and Kendra Horn (OK-05). 

You can read the letter in its entirety here.

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