Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer admitted Wednesday that the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill deal that was finally reached doesn't contain everything he would want, but it's a "good bill" and he believes the Senate has risen to the occasion.
"Are there some things in there that I would have rather not had? No, of course," the New York Democrat told CNN's "New Day." "But this is the art of compromise. This is the art of coming together. America needed huge help quickly, and I think we have risen to that occasion."
The bill is not "much better" than the bill that was presented last week, said Schumer, and includes, "first and foremost" a "Marshall Plan" for hospitals and health care.
"These places desperately need help," said the senator. "They need ventilators, equipment, they need PPE (personal protective equipment), all kinds of things."
The original bill, he added, put corporations first "too much," but the new one puts workers first, as most displaced workers "will get their full salaries or very close to it" through unemployment."
The sticking point, money for corporations, will now have "real oversight and accountability," said Schumer.
"Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped me design those so that we have a special inspector general to look over this, as well as a congressional board," said Schumer.
The bill also helps small business owners, with interest-free loans that will allow them to keep their employees.
The original bill, however, had an "appalling" clause, in which there would be a six-month period on oversight for the money for large corporations, said Schumer.
"They could give out billions and tens of billions of these loans and to companies and no one would know what it is," said Schumer. "Now, within seven days, Congress gets the full document, within 14 days they're made public. Each one and the whole document, not just the outline."
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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