As Democrats and Republicans enter another day of negotiations on Capitol Hill as the deadline for a relief package approval looms, social media is fuming after it was revealed that the GOP's HEALS Act contains billions of dollars in funding for military weaponry. According to WUSA 9, the $1 trillion proposal includes an $8 billion weapons package, which was drafted by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby.
This weapons package seeks to distribute the large sum of money across a number of different measures, with $2.2 billion going into Pentagon shipbuilding accounts. An additional $1.4 billion would go towards C-130 transport planes and F-35 fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp. Other funding would boost missile defense systems in California and Alaska. The $8 billion procurement package, according to the outlet, is part of a $29.4 billion defense portion of the HEALS Act. Meanwhile, CNN reports that some of this funding would go towards military programs that were cut by the Trump administration in order to pay for the border wall.
Given that the HEALS Act has already faced criticism among lawmakers for including provisions unrelated to COVID-19 relief – $1.75 billion are allocated to a new FBI building, $377 million to a West Wing restoration, and a business lunch deduction is also included – it comes as little surprise that social media was anything but thrilled at this latest detail about the package. As users learned of the provision, they took to Twitter to react, many slamming the decision to include such funding when millions of Americans are struggling to stay afloat amid the economic crisis.