03.20.20

McConnell on CARES Act: We’re Going to Stay Until We Get This Done

‘We're all here. We’re going to stay at this until we can get a bill out of the Senate in the next few days on a broad bipartisan basis and send it over to the House of Representatives.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Dana Bash on CNN yesterday to discuss the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. See below for highlights or click here to watch the full interview.

On helping individuals and small businesses:

“We're doing both. We're going to both provide direct assistance to individuals and to small businesses so they can stay open. This is a government imposed shut down if you will, to deal with this pandemic, and so the idea is to act quickly to send cash directly to both individuals and to small businesses.”

On acting in a swift, bipartisan fashion:

“The widespread goal among all of us, both the White House and Senate Republicans, is to get cash directly into the hands of the American people and small businesses as rapidly as possible. Dana, let me switch to the rapid part. I talked to Senator Schumer [yesterday]. We’re going to be meeting [today]. Not just Schumer and myself, but a broader group of both Democrats and Republicans who have been involved on our side in crafting our proposal, and on his side in crafting what they're likely to ask. And the goal here is to stay in session. No one has been given permission to leave. We're all here. We’re going to stay at this until we can get a bill out of the Senate in the next few days on a broad bipartisan basis and send it over to the House of Representatives.”

On assisting Americans as we “bend the curve”:

“We are in effect shutting the economy down. We have to, because of the public health crisis. So that is very different from the 2008 financial crisis, or 9/11 when we were hit by terrorists. It's a very different thing and the key to this, clearly, is get past this and bend the curve as Dr. Fauci continues to tell us. And that requires this kind of isolation that shuts down the economy. It's our job to step in and help people through what we hope will be a short term shut down of our economy.”

Related Issues: Health Care, Economy, Small Business