Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for Congress to pass additional targeted relief to families in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
Hawley argued the best vehicle for distributing this relief would be through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), given that the agency has a method to disburse income tax reimbursements.
“[T]he IRS is set up to disburse reimbursements for income taxes, for instance, so there is a mechanism there in place for the IRS,” he said. “You know, one of the advantages, I suppose, of having to pay our taxes as we do every year is that the IRS does know how to contact Americans quickly. So I think we should use the IRS disbursement process.”
Hawley continued, “As to the amount, the IRS estimates that a family of four — a middle-income family of four spends about $1,800 a month on basic expenses. That’s not amenities but just basic expenses. So the idea would be to cover some increment of that to try to give working families some relief.”
The Missouri Republican also argued dor the Centers for Disease Control to take more of an advisory role for the states.
“I’d like to see the CDC — Centers for Disease Control — issue some uniform guidance. I don’t know that the federal government has the authority to order governors,” he added. “I mean, they can strongly encourage. You know, this is just our system of federalism, right? They can strongly encourage governors and mayors to take certain steps. But I do think it would be helpful for the Centers for Disease Control to issue uniform guidance and to say listen, here is our strong recommendation across the board. I know that as I talk to cities in my state, and mayors, they are saying sometimes we’re not sure what to do.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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