Benjamin among mayors urging Congress to pass Biden’s massive COVID relief plan
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin is one of several South Carolina mayors who signed on to a letter urging Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 and economic rescue plan, which contains hundreds of billions in relief for local governments.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, a non-partisan body of mayors that advocates on behalf of cities nationwide, published a letter to congressional leaders on Tuesday, asking for action on Biden’s proposed American Rescue Plan.
“The $350 billion in direct relief to state and local governments included in President Elect Biden’s American Rescue Plan would allow cities to preserve critical public sector jobs and help drive our economic recovery,” the letter reads, in part. “Providing direct, flexible aid to cities is the most efficient and immediate way to help families and their communities who have been suffering for far too long.”
The letter goes on to say that “quick action” on the relief plan “is a crucial step to making meaningful progress in one of the most challenging moments in our country’s history.” The mayors also express support for Biden’s proposal for a national COVID-19 vaccination program.
More then 280 mayors from across the country are listed on the letter. Aside from Benjamin, other S.C. mayors include Batesburg-Leesville’s Lancer Shull, Chester’s Wanda Stringfellow and Sumter’s David Merchant.
City economies across the nation have been walloped as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday, more than 24 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported in the U.S. in the last year, and more than 400,000 Americans have died because of the virus. In South Carolina, more than 362,000 cases of the virus and 5,729 virus deaths had been reported by the state health department.
In Columbia, the current year’s COVID-ravaged city budget is expected to bring in $20 million less in revenue, compared to the prior year.
“The overwhelming burdens of the pandemic have not been felt on Wall Street, they have been felt on Main Streets all across America,” Benjamin told The State. “They’ve been felt on the streets of our neighborhoods, and there have been burdens on small businesses. The ability to get those resources, direct to local governments, who are providing the primary services that go to our quality of life, is just so important.”
Benjamin is a past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
It remains to be seen whether there will be broad congressional support for Biden’s relief plan, especially in the Senate, which is split 50-50 among Democrats and Republicans. (Vice President Kamala Harris would cast tie-breaking votes.) But Benjamin thinks the new president, who served in the Senate for nearly four decades before he became Barack Obama’s vice president in 2008, can get a deal done.
“The president is certainly a creature of the Senate,” the mayor said. “He enjoys deep and broad bipartisan relationships. We expect that he is going to lever those relationships and a full understanding and respect of the Senate to try to get his agenda passed, and we are going to be right there with him advocating on both sides of the aisle.”
