WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott released the below statement as Congress considers additional coronavirus relief measures.  

Senator Rick Scott said, “For months, I have been fighting to make sure Congress doesn’t bail out states for their poor fiscal decisions. I have worked aggressively to stop bills that would backfill states’ lost revenue or give poorly-run, liberal states like New York and Illinois a blank check to pay for their years of fiscal mismanagement. Every time a Senator tried to allow states to use taxpayer funds specifically meant to respond to coronavirus for other purposes, I personally fought and blocked it from seeing the light of day. I’m very disappointed that the Republican proposal outlined today includes provisions that allow states to use coronavirus-related funding for unrelated purposes.

“I will continue to fight any and all proposals that will allow poorly-run states to use money set aside for coronavirus response to backfill their poorly-managed budgets.

“I am also concerned that it appears that this proposal may spend upwards of $1 trillion when we don’t even understand how much is still unspent from the previous coronavirus response packages that Congress passed earlier this year. There’s no such thing as free money - American families will have to pay this money back in the future. Congress needs to understand that if we don’t get our fiscal house in order, we will simply create another crisis down the road. Our nation is trillions of dollars in debt, and while it is imperative that we respond to the devastation of this pandemic, it is short-sighted to have a conversation on spending even more money when we know so much of the funding we already allocated hasn’t been touched.”

###