Pelosi's coronavirus stimulus includes return of 'Obamaphones,' other unrelated items, GOP says
By
Gregg Re | Fox News
Nancy Pelosi's 'political games' will damage the country: Kevin McCarthy
House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi introduced her own emergency coronavirus stimulus bill on Monday, leading furious Republicans to argue that much of the proposal contained a progressive wishlist seemingly unrelated to the crisis -- including one provision that amounts to a
resurrection of the notorious "Obamaphone" program, GOP officials said.
The bill proposed by Pelosi, D-Calif., additionally seeks to eliminate debt held by the U.S. Postal Service, require same-day voter registration, pay off $10,000 in student debt per person, mandate that airlines reduce their overall carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050, and force federal agencies to explain to Congress how they are increasing their usage of "minority banks."
And, the legislation
would provide for the automatic extension of nonimmigrant visas and restrict colleges from providing information about citizenship status.
"People are dying and all Nancy Pelosi and Democrats can focus on is ripping off the American taxpayer to help pay for their liberal wish list of government handouts," National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement.
"As long as the White House keeps the checkbook open, Democrats will keep taking things," a senior Senate GOP leadership source told Fox News late Monday.
The NRCC went on to accuse Pelosi of cramming the bill "
full of unrelated liberal goodies, including a return of the 'Obamaphone.'" Pelosi, the NRCC said, wants $1 billion "to build on program expanded by President Obama that provides discounted phone service for low-income consumers."
That was an apparent reference to Title III, Section 301 of
Pelosi's bill, which allocates $1 billion and calls for federal authorities to immediately expand the "emergency lifeline broadband benefit" for every household that contains at least one "qualifying low-income consumer." The bill refers to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to define the broadband benefit.
Title 47, Section 8.1(b) of the CFR defines "broadband internet access service" as including cell phones, saying it is any "mass-market retail service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the
operation of the communications service."
A 2017 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claimed that the "Obamaphone" program, which gave cell phones to poor people under the broadband benefit, stashed $9 billion in private bank accounts and was "rife with fraud," the Washington Times reported at the time.
The GAO report found that about 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify. The audit also concluded that more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones, while the program was paying for about 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as dead, the paper reported.
On the Senate floor Monday evening, Republican senators lined up to hammer what they described as Pelosi's pork, and her derailment of their stimulus proposal.
Senate Republicans and Democrats had a tentative agreement on a bill before Pelosi, arriving back to Capitol Hill from recess, suddenly said she would introduce her own legislation.
"Today, 102 Americans died while the Democrats blocked consideration of this bill," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at one point. "One Texan died while this chamber decided not to show up for work and do their job."
Cruz also hit Democrats for seeking to bail out the U.S. Postal Service, which hasn't suggested it will terminate any employees.
"One of the reasons the Democrats think they will get away with this is they expect the media to be utterly complicit," Cruz added, noting that The New York Times conspicuously
changed its headline three times Sunday evening to describe how Democrats had killed Republicans' stimulus bill.
The Times' first headline, "Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus," eventually became, "Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill."
Leaving the GOP stimulus legislation in limbo once more, the Senate stalled over the package Monday afternoon on a 49-46 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then stormed to the floor to accuse Democrats of "mindless obstruction" that could drag out any action for days. He said Democrats' list of demands keeps getting "longer and longer."
After 7 p.m. ET, after hours of additional argument, McConnell announced, “We’ll not be having any votes tonight.” He filed cloture again to halt debate on the effort to start debate on the “shell” bill.
By the book, the new cloture petition won’t “ripen” for a vote until Wednesday. Lawmakers must allow for an “intervening day"; Tuesday is the intervening day -- but the Senate could technically then meet at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and vote within an hour, given that time is of the essence.
They would need 60 yeas just to vault the procedural hurdle and formally start debate later in the week.
“Hope springs eternal," McConnell told Fox News as he left the floor, concerning whether a deal could be reached. “As you know, the talks continue no matter where people are physically located.”
Democrats argued the more-than $1 trillion package did too much for large corporations and not enough for workers, and
inaccurately suggested that the treasury secretary would have unilateral control over a massive "slush fund."
Republicans accused them of playing politics and using the
crisis as leverage to try and jam through unrelated political "wish list" items concerning climate change and more.
“The country is burning, and your side wants to play political games,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before the vote. “It is time to get this done. The American people expect us to act, they need action. We need to get this done for the American people.”
Thune slammed Democrats, specifically moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who just moments earlier said the bill was “weighted toward the Wall Street corporation side.”
“Here we are dilly-dallying around,” Thune said. “This bill is about workers, families, people out there hurting economically—we’re in a position to do something about it and it is high time that we did.”
Moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, blasted Democrats as “disgraceful” for delaying further work on the legislation.
Pelosi, meanwhile, assailed Trump's idea and fluctuating response to the crisis.
At the Capitol, the virus continued to strike close. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who announced he tested positive for coronavirus, is now among five senators under self-quarantine. Several other lawmakers have cycled in and out of isolation. And the husband of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is in a hospital with pneumonia after testing positive, she said Monday.
President Trump warns of economic impact of coronavirus crisis as stimulus bill falters in Senate
