Democrats shouldn't be playing "games" while working on coronavirus emergency relief bills, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said Tuesday.
"Don't play games and say, I will give you that and keep a successful program alive if you give me other things like the Kennedy Center debacle," the Louisiana Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Hopefully we can get focused back on making sure this Paycheck Protection Program stays afloat not just for the million businesses that already applied but for the other maybe (one) million businesses that are waiting to come."
President Donald Trump fought for a program to keep small businesses together and to help them keep their employees, said Scalise, and more than a million companies applied for it.
But now, when Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are seeking an extra $251 billion for the program, the push failed to pass the Senate after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out with a list of demands to add to it, said Scalise.
"We've got to stay away from those kinds of games,” said Scalise.
Scalise also weighed in on the heated debate about whether Trump has the sole power in ordering states to reopen businesses and facilities that have been closed to stop the spread of coronavirus, claiming that Trump has been the one in charge of the response all along.
"It's been the president that came out and say, let socially distance and bring your crowds down to no more than ten people," Scalise claimed. "When the president said that, you saw almost every governor in the country take that cue and say we will institute a new set of policies. "
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.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.