SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mike Lee says it’s “not too fun” being on the sidelines while Congress hammers out an economic relief package to help dislocated workers and businesses get through the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Republican senator remains engaged in the process, though he won’t be able to vote from home in Utah where he’s in isolation after sitting at the same table as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., last Friday. Paul tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
Lee is feeling no ill effects from being exposed to a person with the virus, telling KSL Newsradio’s “Dave and Dujanovic” on Tuesday that he’s “healthy as a horse.”
“In the meantime, I’m doing everything I can to stay busy, to continue to do my job without being on the Senate floor to vote. That part of it’s frustrating,” he said.
The state’s senior senator isn’t the only member of Utah’s congressional delegation keeping his distance because of the virus. And all three who have directly felt its impact expressed the need for Republicans and Democrats to quit fighting over the relief bill and get people the help they desperately need.
Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams remains in a Utah hospital on the advice of doctors to be treated for severe COVID-19 symptoms.
“They are monitoring my occasional need for supplemental oxygen and have advised me that I still need to be here,” he said in a statement.
McAdams said his wife and children are in quarantine in his home.
“Suddenly, we all had firsthand experience about how life changes in the time of a contagious disease outbreak,” he wrote in a Deseret News op-ed.
Even before his diagnosis, McAdams said he knew it was important to vote for free COVID-19 testing, expanded unemployment insurance, loans for small businesses and more resources for state and local public health agencies, but he’s now learning firsthand how stress and anxiety about the future affects people.
“I’ll be fine, but many Utah families may face great hardships and economic impacts,” he said.
GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who also attended the lunch meeting with Paul, remains at home in Utah. He said Tuesday that he tested negative for COVID-19, but will stay in quarantine on the advice of doctors and Centers for Disease Control guidelines because the test does not rule out the onset of symptoms during the 14-day period.
Capitol doctors initially told Lee he would be tested, but after asking him questions, taking his temperature and considering his age, told him there was no reason for it. And given the scarcity of the tests, he said doctors told him “we don’t see any need to waste one on you.”
Taking the test wouldn’t expedite the time he would need to be in isolation, so good luck, Lee said doctors told him.
“Not the answer I was expecting,” he said. “I figure they know what they’re doing.”
Lee said he also wasn’t expecting Democrats to block the economic relief package that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rolled out over the weekend.
“I just thought it was weird,” he said.
Senate Democrats have voted down two procedural votes to open debate on the bill, which Lee called “bizarre,” especially with experts saying the U.S. is just days away from the worst phase of the pandemic.
Lee said it’s not a typical debate where he would anticipate much bipartisan bickering. McConnell’s legislation, he said, wasn’t lopsided in favor of Republican interests and he thought it was “very strange” that Democrats tried to characterize it that way.
The Republican bill has direct payments to Americans, while the Democratic bill has emission standards for airplanes, he said. The Republican bill has a loan program from small business, while the Democratic bill has gender diversity requirement for corporate boards, he said.
“The Democrats are using the bill as a crisis to advance their preexisting, hyperpartisan agenda, and it’s shameful. It needs to stop,” Lee said on KSL Newsradio’s “Live Mic.”
As of Tuesday, there was still no agreement between the parties on the roughly $2 trillion rescue package.
Lee said the McConnell proposal isn’t perfect, citing carve-outs for large industries like Boeing and General Electric. But it has the potential to help hundreds of millions of American workers and small businesses.
“The Democrats should really stop blocking it,” he said.
McAdams, Utah’s only Democrat in Congress, also said the the “partisan games must stop now.”
“Using a public health emergency to insert unrelated partisan provisions is wrong. Both parties and both chambers must put politics aside and put working families — lives and livelihoods — first. Utahns want something done immediately and I call on my colleagues to reach bipartisan agreement,” he said in a statement.
From the beginning of the crisis, Lee said he has supported broad-based action to help everyone through the social and economic disruption. The bill, he said, goes a long way toward doing that.
Sending $1,200 to individual tax filers, $2,400 to married couples filing jointly and $500 for dependent children would be a huge help for families, he said. The proposed $350 billion in loans to small businesses would allow them to pay workers, avoid bankruptcy and keep their doors open, he said.
“When we beat this virus, and we will, we need to make sure these small businesses are going to be ready to come roaring back,” he said, noting 100% of net job growth the past 40 years has come through small- and medium-sized companies.
Romney also continues to call for swift action tweeting, “People need help and they need help now. Congress needs to get this #COVID19 relief package done.”