Stimulus Update: Mitch McConnell Rips Into Malibu for Requesting Billions for Street Sweepers, Other Projects

Mitch McConnell just received a questionable message begging for coronavirus relief funding, and [...]

By John Connor Coulston

Mitch McConnell just received a questionable message begging for coronavirus relief funding, and he is using it to his advantage. McConnell, who serves as a Kentucky Senator and the Senate Majority leader, took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to reveal that representatives from Malibu, California, sent him a letter allegedly asking for billions to help fund electric street-sweepers, among other environmental projects. Malibu requested these funds as part of the next coronavirus relief plan.

"Yesterday, I received an urgent letter from the city of Malibu, California," McConnell said, per Fox News. "And — I promise I am not making this up — they asked Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments because they have had to delay their' conversion to an all-electric city fleet.' I guess that's an emergency in Malibu: When they can't keep buying brand-new electric cars as quickly as they'd like."

Malibu City Council and City Manager Reva Feldman sent the letter, which was also passed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

It read: "The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted municipal budgets across the country in ways that local governments could never have foreseen. Critical City environmental projects intended to improve our environment while reducing City costs, including a solar energy project, conversion to an all-electric city fleet, streetlight upgrades, and resiliency projects related to wildfire and earthquake preparation, among others, have been postponed indefinitely due to projected budget shortfalls."

Despite the request covering more than just electric vehicles, McConnell used it to his advantage to paint a portrait of Democrats adding wasteful spending into the next relief measure. As McConnell stated earlier in the week, "The speaker of the House and the Democratic leader are continuing to say 'our way or the highway' with a massive wish list for left-wing lobbyists that was slapped together a few weeks ago called a coronavirus bill." As of this writing, the Democrats and Republicans have yet to hash out a new deal when it comes to economic relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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