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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks Wednesday on the Senate floor:

“Mr. President, I want to start today by acknowledging the tragedy that has befallen several states in the South, including my home State of Kentucky. According to news reports, rare winter storms have struck across Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.

“News reports indicate at least 44 people have been killed. Seven of those were in my state—four in Allen County, which is down along the Tennessee border; and three in Greenville, which is in Muhlenberg County in the western part of the Commonwealth.

“Thousands more are left with damaged or destroyed property or are without power. The authorities are still working to determine the extent of the damage.

“I ask my colleagues to join me in praying for the families of the victims, and to all who have been touched by these terrible storms. State and local officials are working as hard as they can to survey the destruction, and get help to anyone who needs it.”

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‘My preference is to modify the House package to include rebate checks for seniors and disabled veterans, but not for illegal immigrants’

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the need to quickly pass the economic growth package, and the McConnell-Stevens amendment that would add low-income seniors and disabled veterans while ensuring that those who have entered the country illegally would not receive rebate checks:

“It’s been 19 days since the President called for a stimulus plan — and economists called for swift action on it.

“Republicans and Democrats in the House got the message: they made some hard choices, showed restraint, and forged a bipartisan compromise within days.

“Unfortunately, Senate Democrats didn’t follow suit. They turned the idea into a political game, with the head of their campaign committee calling for ‘tough votes.’

“The American people are tired of political ‘gotcha.’

“We don’t have time for it. The economy needs a boost now.

“So I think we need to step back and ask ourselves what this exercise was all about in the first place.

“My preference is to modify the House package to include rebate checks for seniors and disabled veterans, but not for illegal immigrants.

“The White House and the Treasury Secretary have indicated support for such a plan, so we can expect it will be signed into law.

“Meanwhile, we have no such assurances for the alternative, larger proposal Senate Democrats are still hashing out.

“We read just this morning that ‘negotiations are still ongoing’ among Democrats about what to include in the final package.

“We started out united behind a proposal to help struggling taxpayers and stimulate the economy. Now some are insisting on a plan that may not even be signed into law.

“But there’s still another choice.

“We can still pass a bill that is targeted and timely, and which helps seniors and disabled veterans — and that’s the amendment I’ll be offering later today with Senator Stevens.

“The Reid Amendment, by contrast, is a Christmas tree of legislative goodies that might not even get signed.

“So should the Reid Amendment fail, we should immediately move to include seniors and disabled veterans, exclude those who are not legal citizens, then quickly pass the good, bipartisan House-passed bill and send it down to the White House for a signature.

“To do less would break faith with the American People, who were told nearly three weeks ago they could expect relief.

“I urge my colleagues and the whole body to support it, so we can deliver timely help to the American People.”

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Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday urging Senators to reject the overloaded Senate Democrat economic growth package in favor of the bipartisan House-passed package and the McConnell-Stevens amendment. The McConnell-Stevens amendment would ensure that disabled veterans and their widows, as well as low-income seniors receive a rebate check, and to ensure that those who have entered the country illegally do not.

“In a few moments we're going to have an extremely important vote. Nineteen days ago the President first proposed an economic stimulus package and implored Congress to act.

“It was impressive to see the Democratic Speaker of the House, the Republican Leader of the House, and the Secretary of the Treasury of the Bush Administration all together having worked out an important stimulus package that we believe will help our economy.

“Then in an apparent jolt of nostalgia for last year, Senate Democrats decided to co-op a bipartisan proposal produced by the House to put together a carefully crafted political document coming out of the Finance Committee.

“Mr. President, it may be a good proposal in some respects, and I’m sure it contains a lot of things that are appealing to members, but the point here was to try to do a targeted temporary jolt to our economy and to try to astonish the American people by doing it on a bipartisan basis rapidly.

“This package will not achieve that result.

“There is an opportunity, however, to do that.

“First we must defeat the Reid proposal and then there will be an opportunity to adjust the House proposal in a way that is acceptable to the Speaker of the House, the Republican Leader of the House, and the President of the United States, thereby achieving an early signature.

“So I will offer, along with Senator Stevens, after the Reid proposal does not achieve cloture, an amendment to the House-passed bill that will deal with social security, with veterans, and with the immigration problem. And with regard to the veterans piece of it, one of the deficiencies of the Finance Committee or Reid proposal is that it does not cover the widows of veterans.

“That omission will be corrected in the proposal that I will offer so if we want to provide this stimulative effect for the widows of veterans, a way to do that and the way to do it in a proposal that will be signed by the President of the United States, approved by the House of Representatives on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, is to approve the McConnell-Stevens amendment.

“Now, let me say, Senator Stevens and I don't have any pride of authorship. If it will help us get this job done, we can call it the Reid-Obama-Clinton proposal as far as I’m concerned.

“The goal here is not so much to claim credit as it is to astonish the American people and do something on a bipartisan basis and do it quickly. Do it quickly. People will be astonished. And we thank the markets and others around the world will watch in amazement to see that on a bipartisan basis, the United States government could do something effective and fast.

“So I would be more than happy to change the name of the amendment if that would make it more palatable. We have no particular pride of authorship. This whole path that we’re going down started out with bipartisanship and I was hoping that we would end it on a bipartisan basis, and as far as the credit part of it is concerned, we could all take credit, we could go upstairs to the gallery together, Senator Reid and myself side by side, and say we came together, we did something important for the American people. The House can simply take this up.

“We know, the House Majority Leader Hoyer implored us just today not to load it up with too many extras that would imperil the bill. He was referring, of course, to the one upon which we will be having a cloture vote shortly

“So the way forward is clear, let's defeat the proposal that we know will not be accepted by the House, that we know will not be signed by the President. Modify the House bill. We can call it the Reid-Clinton-Obama bill as far as I’m concerned. Get it back over to the House. We have the assurance that they will take it up, pass it, send it to the President for signature.

“But first we must defeat the Reid Finance Committee package.”

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