(CNSNews.com) - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) went to the Senate floor on Thursday to “demand” that the Senate pass the HEROES Act, which the Congressional Budget Office says will add $3.445 trillion to the federal government’s deficit.
“I just took to the Senate floor to demand that we pass the House-passed, bipartisan HEROES Act,” Schumer said in a tweet he sent out after his floor speech.
“It fights for hazard pay for essential workers, state and local govts, our schools, testing and tracing, the unemployed, Medicaid, elections, renters, and more,” Schumer said.
“But the Senate blocked it,” Schumer said.
The HEROES Act passed the House on May 15, 2020 on a 208 to 199 vote. One Republican voted for it and 14 Democrats voted against it.
The Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of the HEROES Act said it would add $3.445 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. That included $1.719 trillion this fiscal year and $1.431 trillion next fiscal year. According to the CBO's analysis, provisions in this COVID-19-response bill would continue adding to the deficit through fiscal 2026.
In March, Congress passed the CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for that law, it will add $1.7 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years.
If Congress enacts the HEROES Act, the two major COVID-19 response bills would add a combined $5.15 trillion to the deficit ($3.445 trillion plus $1.7 trillion).
At the beginning of this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2019), according to the U.S. Treasury, the federal debt was $22,719,401,753,433.78. As of the close of business on Tuesday, it was at $26,521,548,685,169.55—an increase of $3,802,146,931,735.77 so far this fiscal year.