Washington, D.C. – Representative Tom Emmer (MN-06) issued the following statement regarding the House of Representatives passage of additional legislation to assist with the economic fallout from COVID-19:

"The week before last, Congress worked in a non-partisan, deliberate and transparent way to provide more than $8 billion in emergency funding to help combat the spread of the Coronavirus. This past week, I hoped Congress would continue to work in a measured fashion to provide additional resources to the American people. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Frankly, I'm frustrated with how Friday’s vote played out. I'm fully aware of the serious situation we are in as a country. We must get the American people all the help they need. 

For too long Congress has decided to operate in the middle of the night in an abrupt and haphazard fashion. We were given 26 minutes to read and vote on over a hundred pages of legislation containing billions in new spending and new mandates on our small business community. There was no time to analyze the full impact of this legislation on Main Street businesses. Perhaps worst of all, in a time where spending is out of control, nobody even bothered to calculate the costs of these measures.

The events of the last few weeks have shaken our nation to the core. But as has been the case throughout our brief history, the American spirit will prevail. Congress still has time to get this right and the American people demand that we do. The time of passing a bill to see what's in it needs to come to an end in Washington.