House Minority Leader talks Congress’ next steps in fight against coronavirus
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joined Fox News on Sunday to discuss some of the steps he believes Congress should take to help Americans battle the coronavirus.
At the forefront was protections for businesses to prevent them from being sued if employees or customers contract the virus in their business.
“We need liability protection because these small businesses are questioning whether they can open again, our schools and others, “said McCarthy. So, let’s protect those as we move forward.”
President Donald Trump has echoed the call for liability protection for businesses to be included in the next coronavirus relief package.
McCarthy also said that Congress made a mistake by appropriating too much money for unemployment insurance because many Americans currently make more from government benefits then they would if they returned to work.
“Let’s also look at any time you’re using federal money, it shouldn’t de-incentivize the ability to work,” McCarthy said. “We made a mistake where we overpaid on unemployment insurance where now it’s hard for people to come back to work because they’re making more on unemployment than they can working. So, we got to straighten that out as we move forward.”
The Republican leader also called for making the safety of children in daycare, as well as both students and teachers in schools a major priority. He agreed that it’s time for students to return to school but said it must be done safely.
“When you look at these recent studies, you’re finding that children have not kept their reading, their writing, and their math, losing more than 30 percent of it. We cannot have a whole generation that’s uneducated,” McCarthy said. “So, what we need to do is actually put that plan together, because we’ve got to make sure schools can reopen.”
McCarthy was passionate about the U.S. reducing its reliance on China as a result of coronavirus.
“If we learn nothing from this, not the lies of China but bringing those jobs back to America but also our supply chain itself,” he said. “Not being beholden to China for so much of our critical minerals and others, let’s find a way that we improve it here and for our stockpiling. I would do that in a different manner, working with the private sector to stockpile it.”
Congress is expected to release its next round of coronavirus relief very soon and is still in talks with the White House on a final bill. The Democrat House previously passed a relief package but it was shut down by the Republican Senate.
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