Key Vote NO on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, H.R. 6201

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote NO on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, H.R. 6201. This bill is being brought to the floor, pushed by House Democrats, without any committee discussion or debate in the primary committee of jurisdiction and being brought to the floor without the opportunity for amendments. The process for this bill is only one of the concerns we have over H.R. 6201.

Only last week, Congress bipartisanly appropriated more than $8 billion in emergency funding for the purpose of dealing with the spread of COVID-19, and it’s not clear where all of that funding is headed. The open-ended boondoggle this bill would create will certainly come with another tremendous price tag, although it is difficult to estimate how big because it is being advanced too fast for the Congressional Budget Office to even make an estimate.

The budget deficit for FY 2020 is already projected to be in excess of $1 trillion. This doesn’t include additional supplemental spending that has already been approved by Congress, including the more than $8 billion passed last week without any offsets. Without question, Congress utterly failed to spend at responsible levels during this long period of sustained economic growth and properly plan for an inevitable economic slowdown.

Furthermore, it is deceitful of House Democrats to attempt to fast-track a bill to deal with a serious problem like the nationwide concern over coronavirus, which is not much more than a wishlist of government programs and policies that they would, make no mistake, like to see made permanent. These programs and policies include an increase in the Federal Matching Assistance Program (FMAP) formula for Medicaid, expansions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and paid family leave. Some members are even proposing further initiatives such as halting student loan debt collection or offering forms of mortgage forgiveness in connection with the coronavirus. Needless to say, these are clearly politically-driven issues.

Although the bill tailors most of these policy changes to apply only to COVID-19 or during the duration of a related emergency declaration, it represents a significant political step towards setting precedent for such policies at all times, not just in crisis.

FreedomWorks will count the vote for H.R. 6201 on our 2020 Congressional Scorecard and reserves the right to score any related votes. We understand that H.R. 6201 may not be the final product of the effort to pass additional coronavirus legislation, especially as the vote originally set for H.R. 6201 has been postponed. This means that we also reserve the right to score votes on any updated legislation that may change from H.R. 6201, and will provide a brief update to this key vote alert, should related but non-identical legislation be what is ultimately voted on.

Our Congressional Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks