The United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded quickly to the House of Representatives’ new USPS relief bill on Saturday night, announcing that it would not be passed. McConnell tweeted that the Republican-led Senate would not pass this bill “while American families continue to go without the help they need.” Other users had some harsh responses to that.
McConnell’s tweet came almost exactly an hour after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s post, announcing that the House had passed the Delivering for America Act. It would provide $25 billion in funding for the USPS and “reverse the President’s damage” to the agency” — if it could pass in both sides of the U.S. Congress. However, McConnell quickly dispelled that hope, as many predicted he would. The Kentucky senator claimed that he would not let this measure pass as “stand-alone legislation,” implying that it should be a part of the stimulus deal.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Republicans are committed to making sure the Postal Service remains well equipped to fulfill its important duties. But the Senate will not pass stand-alone legislation for the Postal Service while American families continue to go without the help they need.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 23, 2020
Many of Pelosi’s followers predicted that this would be the case when she made her post an hour earlier. They complained that Pelosi was wasting time on this USPS bill, knowing that the Senate would almost definitely shoot it down. At the same time, most Twitter users in both Pelosi and McConnell’s replies seemed to be equally angry at both leaders for failing to pass a new stimulus package by now.
Both the House and the Senate had prolonged recesses scheduled for August, and neither side agreed to postpone or cancel these breaks in order to create more time to pass a stimulus check. In the meantime, enhanced unemployment benefits have expired, millions of Americans are out of work, and are in danger of losing housing, losing medical care and going hungry.
Never believe a chinless republican pic.twitter.com/EJ1o8YCNT6
— George Iona (@iona_geo) August 23, 2020
The House returned from its recess this week for an emergency hearing on the USPS — calling Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to testify about possible tampering in the 2020 presidential election. For many Americans, this was just as infuriating as the inaction of the Senate, which remains on recess until Sept. 8. They question why the House would count the USPS as an emergency, but not their impending poverty.
Either way, the result is a deluge of outrage under both Pelosi and McConnell’s tweets this weekend. Many users replied with information on candidates that could replace either lawmaker in the 2020 election. In the meantime, stimulus check negotiations remain stalled until at least mid-September.
