Photo provided by Cong. Keller
MILTON – 12th District U.S. Congressman Fred Keller (R-12th, Kreamer) voiced some big concerns with the recently passed $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan. He was on a visit to Milton Monday and spoke to the Central PA Chamber of Commerce.
He said despite unemployment benefits being trimmed back, employers are still in a tough spot, “If you offer someone a job, they’re supposed to come back to work. If they don’t come back to work, you’re now the bad guy, because you’ve told the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, ‘I offered them a job,’ and we shouldn’t be doing that. That was supposed to end at the end of March, but now it’s at the point where some people can be on unemployment for so many more months.”
In the bill, unemployment benefits would be cut from $400 per week to $300 per week and extend through September, but he said that is still a disincentive to return to work.
Congressman Keller later took a question about getting much-needed funding to local municipalities directly from the federal government instead of going through the state. He said he tried to add an amendment to the bill to do just that, but it was rejected.
“Chairwoman (Carolyn) Maloney (R-12, NY) said she agreed with me and she’d love to do that, but it’s just too hard. I had to remind her that in 1969 the United States of America put a man on the moon. I thought it was pretty poor the United States government couldn’t get money from the U.S. Treasury right to municipalities. Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always easy,” he said.
Cong. Keller says his office is happy to work with state legislators to help speed up getting federal funding down to local municipalities sooner.
