Today, House Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) issued the following statement as Senate Republicans demanded the inclusion of a dangerous provision from Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) in COVID-19 relief legislation that would hamstring the new Administration’s ability to recover from the economic crisis by eliminating the Federal Reserve’s ability to lend in an emergency:

“The GOP Senate’s dangerous demand to include Senator Toomey’s poison pill provision in the COVID-19 relief bill threatens to hamstring our nation’s response to the historic economic crisis of the coronavirus. If implemented, this unprecedented change to the law would block the Federal Reserve from ever creating lending facilities that help small businesses and state and local governments, taking away one of the important tools to fight this or any future economic crisis. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has previously expressed on-the-record support for continued use of these authorities.

“An agreement on a coronavirus relief bill was within sight, but Senate Republicans are now holding up the entire package over this unacceptable provision designed to sabotage the economic recovery under the Biden Administration. Senate Republicans’ extreme demand threatens to derail this urgently needed action, and it must be immediately abandoned so that we can move forward.”

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