Van Hollen Statement on the Senate Budget Resolution Passage

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) released the following statement regarding his vote in support of the Senate budget resolution:

“More than 450,000 of our fellow Americans have died of COVID-19. This is an unacceptable toll of suffering. And while we grapple with the human costs of this pandemic, many are facing the economic fallout as well. Main Street is struggling – we’ve seen thousands of small businesses shutter. And across our nation disparities are growing – our students are facing a widening learning gap and families are contending with mounting bills and no means to put food on the table. This crisis has upended every aspect of American life, and it has disproportionately harmed working families, communities of color, our children, and the elderly.

“While I was glad we were able to come together on a bipartisan basis to pass a COVID-19 relief installment in December, now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back, say we’re done, and throw in the towel. We have no time for a victory lap – to fully address this crisis, we need to go big before it’s too late. We must ramp up vaccine distribution and testing, get help to those hardest-hit, work to get our children safely back in school, and put our economy on the road to recovery. We need relief that meets this moment, and the budget resolution we passed today will ensure just that.”