March 16, 2022

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative,

You will soon vote on H.R. 7007, the COVID Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to oppose this legislation. 

 H.R. 7007 would allocate $15.6 billion in additional COVID-19 pandemic relief.  Congress has authorized $4.6 trillion in prior relief bills, of which $1 trillion has yet to be spent and $360 billion has yet to be obligated. 

 As House Budget Committee Ranking Member Jason Smith (R-Mo.) noted, only 9 percent of the money was directly related to combating the pandemic, $2 billion went to county governments that do not exist, and other projects like golf courses, luxury apartments, and upgrading state parks and trails were all funded with COVID-relief money. 

The most significant results of this massive spending spree have been the highest inflation in 40 years and the highest gas prices on record.  More spending will only exacerbate these problems, which have hit low and middle-income Americans hard.

 Rather than passing H.R. 7007, you and your colleagues should follow Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) lead and call for a full accounting of previous pandemic relief dollars.  There should also be a much more aggressive effort to recover the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been wasted or stolen.  For example, as much as $400 billion may have been lost through fraudulent unemployment claims.  Recovering only 5 percent of that money would be more than sufficient to pay for the programs funded in H.R. 7007, assuming they are even necessary.

For these reasons, I urge you to oppose H.R. 7007.  All votes related to H.R. 7007 may be among those considered for CCAGW’s 2022 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW 

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