Representative Kevin Hern (OK-01) delivered the following remarks at this morning’s House Committee on Ways and Means markup of multiple bills included in President Biden’s one-sided COVID-19 package.

Click here to watch the video.

Rep Hern’s remarks as prepared:

Thank you, Chairman Neal and Ranking Member Brady for holding this markup. It is critical that Congress continue working to defeat the virus and reopen our economy. 

This is my first markup with this committee. I’m disappointed to see it spent on such a partisan bill that fails to target aid where it’s needed most.

Since I’m new to this committee, I think my colleagues should know that I understand the issues we’re dealing with today on a personal level. 

I grew up in poverty, unsure if the lights would still be on when I got home from school or if there would be food for dinner that night. My childhood is marked by a dependence on government aid that incentivized my step-dad to stay home rather than work. I’ve seen what the welfare system does to families. It’s built to hold them down rather than help them up. 

At a young age, I decided that the example set by my step-dad was not the life I wanted, and I put myself to work. I worked harder and longer than anyone around me because I knew that my work ethic is what would pull me out of poverty and change the course of my life. I was right. Now, I’ve spent over 34 years as a business owner and job creator across many industries in my community.

There is no social program quite like a job. A hard-earned paycheck is infinitely more valuable than anything from the unemployment office. We need to put Americans back to work, make America tired again. 

I’d love to be part of the solution here, and I know many of my colleagues on all sides feel the same, but none of us on the Republican side were consulted on this bill. 

Last year, every single COVID relief package passed with bipartisan support. That will not happen this time, because the majority has chosen to abandon their calls for unity without even making an effort. Sadly, it’s the American people who will bear the burden of that decision. 

A year ago, we didn’t know much about the virus, we had no clue how dire the economic fallout would become. That uncertainty was reflected in the initial relief legislation we passed. We threw money at our problems in the hope that some of that money would find the people who needed it. As a result, there are over 1 trillion dollars left unused from previous relief packages. 

Today we are a year wiser. We know much more about the virus, what families and businesses have been hit the hardest. Let’s not waste any more taxpayer dollars than we have to. 

We need to be very targeted in what we do. There is no excuse for exorbitant spending, period. This relief needs to be timely, targeted, and temporary. 

The lack of targeting on previous relief packages resulted in billions of dollars wasted on Americans whose incomes were not impacted by COVID while millions of Americans who truly needed help were left out to dry. We cannot continue in the same practices that led to those failures. 

COVID-19 is not an opportunity to be taken advantage of, to pass as many radical policies as possible. Nothing we do in this legislation should be a permanent fixture in federal policy. These relief funds should only be used to temporarily assist those whose lives have been turned upside down by the government deciding that their jobs are not essential. 

I have a number of concerns with the bill before us today. 

I have serious concerns about incentivizing workers to stay on unemployment rather than incentivizing workers to return to the workforce. This bill extends the additional $400 unemployment payment through the end of the summer. This additional payment prevents our families from returning to the workforce, with over 50% of recipients getting paid more to stay on welfare than to go back to work. 

With PPP, we ensured that even if businesses were struggling, their employees would still have a paycheck, which is far more valuable than an unemployment check. We must connect workers with reopening jobs, not pay them to stay out of the workforce. Our economy will recover as quickly or as slowly as we can get Americans back to work. 

In addition to providing a salary bump with the added UI payments, this bill proposes lavish healthcare benefits for the unemployed. Specifically, this legislation subsidizes unemployment healthcare plans that cover abortions, which is a non-starter. 

Last summer, a report revealed that less than 2% of people who had employer-sponsored health coverage before the pandemic have become uninsured as a result, leading us to believe action on this front is unwarranted at this point. Now is not the time to create new healthcare and welfare programs or prop up an old one. 

My last concern is with this pension bailout. I don’t see how a blank check to unions supports the mission to defeat the virus and reopen the economy. This bill bails out $60 billion in union pensions with no reforms or clarity if another bailout will be necessary down the road. 

Like I said earlier, I wish Republicans had been consulted on this bill. There’s a lot we can do when we work together, as we saw last year, and as this committee has historically done, but I fear a one-sided process will leave millions of Americans unaccounted for in this relief package. 

The majority is setting dangerous precedents that should be concerning for all Americans.

I yield back.

###