Lowey Statement on President Trump Abandoning Coronavirus Relief Talks

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) released the following statement after President Trump abruptly abandoned bipartisan coronavirus relief talks to focus on ramming through Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett:

“The American people are hurting, and once again President Trump and the Republicans who blindly follow him are denying them the help they need.

“Since May, Senate Republicans have held hostage any attempt at delivering coronavirus relief. Instead they have yoked themselves to the Trump administration’s utter mismanagement of this crisis, a failure which has left 210,000 Americans dead and turned 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into a hot zone.

“House Democrats have passed two versions of The Heroes Act to crush the coronavirus, support working families, and safely reopen our economy. In a show of our good faith, the legislation we advanced last week represented a significant compromise from the bill we adopted with bipartisan support in May.

“It is profoundly disturbing that President Trump has abandoned ongoing bipartisan talks. His tweets announcing this decision reveal that his only concern now is a desperate attempt to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. I can only assume this rush is motivated by a desire to have conservative justices in place to bless his ongoing attempts to steal the election in November and to quickly overturn the Affordable Care Act, kicking millions of Americans off their health care in the middle of this pandemic.

“Today is a sad day for the American people, who will be denied the help they need. And it is a stark reminder that this President and the sycophants in his party are simply not up to the task of leading our nation in this moment.”

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