Congressman William Timmons (SC-04) released the following statement on the Omnibus government spending package which included additional COVID-19 relief:

“For months, I have called for an additional bipartisan COVID-19 relief package. There are families still suffering and businesses still struggling due to the global pandemic and the restrictions placed on them by federal, state, and local governments. They have long needed additional federal support, and there is no reason for us to have wasted so much time. But politics were at play, and conveniently, Speaker Pelosi is now willing to cut a deal with an election out of the way. 

“Unfortunately, Congress chose to combine this much-needed relief bill with a massive government spending bill that quickly became over 5,500 pages long. We received the text of this behemoth legislation just six hours before we were expected to vote. It is the second-largest spending bill in United States history.

“I want to be clear: I support the bipartisan, bicameral COVID-19 relief bill. It provides additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program to help keep workers paid, provides funding for building out rural broadband and telehealth services, and includes money to safely reopen our schools. This bill will help unemployed Americans and working families and contains a host of other provisions to help support the American people and rebuild our economy. I have been waiting for months to cast this vote, and I would have voted in favor of this relief package today had it not been wrongfully attached to a bloated government funding bill. 

“But I do not support the reckless, multi-trillion-dollar government spending bill that is chock full of unnecessary spending. I have opposed wasteful government spending since I came to Congress, and with our national debt quickly approaching $30 trillion, I could not support this colossal package.  

“It did not have to be this way, but this broken process is par for the course in Washington. Dysfunction is the rule and regular order is the exception. We are the greatest nation in the history of the world. Our government should act like it.”