The $1 trillion COVID-19 relief bill is a "rescue operation for our country" and must be approved by both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, Sen. John Barrasso said Friday.
"We need immediate relief for people all across America," the Wyoming Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "To me, that’s direct support as well as dealing with the medical component of this."
The goal for the bill is to have something ready for a vote by Monday, said Barrasso.
"We'll work all day today, tomorrow, Sunday," he said. "I've already met with a couple of senators earlier this morning. This is going to be an all-hands-on-deck effort to try to get this to the House of Representatives."
Americans expect Congress to act in a bipartisan way, and "we need all hands on deck," said Barrasso.
"The more senators (who are) involved in discussing it, the better," he said. "We have a number of task forces who are working on it. We are working straight through the weekend. We need to go big, we need to be bold on this, and it needs to be bipartisan."
However, before the economy or the nation's healthcare crisis will recover, the medical crisis behind the novel coronavirus must be resolved.
"Until we get this medical crisis behind us, we’re not going to be able to do what we need to do to recover our economy," he said. But people who are out of work because their employers have had to shut down need "immediate relief and direct support now."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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