WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the Trump Administration will allow key pandemic relief programs to expire on December 31 over objections from the Federal Reserve, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, issued the following statement:

“This is another sign that President Trump knows he lost.  Sadly, it appears he and his political appointees intend to use their remaining time in office to undermine the chances of a strong economic recovery. 

“You don’t have to be an economist to understand it’s unwise to end emergency programs in the middle of an emergency.  President Trump’s lack of a COVID-19 strategy has cost our country dearly, and the virus is spreading at alarming rates.  But with alarm bells clanging, suddenly the outgoing chief thinks the rescue vehicles should be retired.  It’s outrageous.

“Secretary Mnuchin knows pulling the plug on these economic support programs now will make it harder to resuscitate the economy.  If President Trump hadn’t lost the election and Secretary Mnuchin even suggested this move he’d be fired immediately in 280 characters or less.

“The incoming Biden Administration will have to clean up President Trump’s economic mess that has hurt workers, small businesses, and Main Street.  And when the eviction moratorium ends and when unemployment insurance runs out, millions more families will be at risk, and economic pain will be felt even more acutely in homes, neighborhoods, and communities nationwide.

“The federal government shouldn’t sit around and wait for that to happen.  The Trump Administration and Congress should take bipartisan action now to help improve the economy, but sadly the Trump Administration seems intent on sabotaging it.

“Congress approved these financial backstops in the CARES Act with bipartisan support, and I urge my Republican colleagues to speak up and summon that same spirit of bipartisanship to aid the economy and protect it from this kind of reckless sabotage.”