Washington, D.C. – Representative Tom Emmer (MN-06) issued the following statement regarding the House of Representatives passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 package:

"Five separate times under the previous administration, Congress came together and worked in a non-partisan manner to combat the spread of the Coronavirus and help the American people.

Today, after hundreds of reasonable changes offered by Republicans to improve this legislation were denied, House Democrats forced a vote on an entirely partisan COVID relief package. Instead of providing more funding for public health and vaccinations or ensuring the nearly $1 trillion in unspent COVID relief is allocated, Speaker Pelosi and her caucus opted to advance a political agenda rather than responsibly legislate for the American people. The simple fact that only 9% of the nearly $2 trillion in new spending is directed towards public health and combatting COVID goes to show just how intent Democrats are on never letting a crisis go to waste.

We need to focus on getting kids back to school, reopening businesses, and distributing vaccines. Since these priorities were clearly not reflected in the Democrat’s package, I could not support this partisan legislation.”

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