Mitch McConnell Calls For House Coronavirus Bill To Be Passed Without Amendment: ‘Gag and Vote For It Anyway’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Senate would move ahead with a vote on the House’s coronavirus response bill, and urged his Republican colleagues to withhold their objections to the bill and “vote for it anyway.”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McConnell said his intention was to hold a vote on the House’s bill as soon as they could, and that the Senate wouldn’t adjourn until they’ve passed legislation to expand on the House’s proposed measures.

“With regard to the bill that came over from the House, there was some discussion about a bigger proposal because we all know a bigger proposal was necessary, but I’ve decided we’re going to go on and vote as soon as the Senate can get permission to vote on the bill that came over from the House, send it down to the president for his signature and thus re-ensure the people around the country that we can operate on them bicameral, bipartisan basis quickly. Second, we will not leave until we have passed yet another bill and clearly, that will have to go in two steps as I’ve indicated earlier, first Senate Republicans and the administration are going to try to reach an agreement on what we think is best for what can best be described as Phase 3. Then we will sit down with hour Democratic counterparts and see what we can agree to. The Senate will not leave town until we have processed yet another bill to address this emergency.”

As he took questions, McConnell argued that “a much larger bill” is necessary to deal with the pandemic, but the counsel he offered to his colleagues was to “gag and vote for it anyway even if they think it has some shortcomings, and to address those shortcomings in the bill we are in the process of crafting.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

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