AID PACKAGE: He doesn’t love it, but Fulcher votes yes

U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher voted Thursday for the nearly half-trillion dollar aid package for businesses and hospitals, but he did it with some asterisks attached.

One had to do with piling on debt.

Another with government mandating people’s livelihoods.

And one more asterisk for a key process that he said is circumventing the lawmaking process.

At least, when he held his nose and voted “yes,” he didn’t have to pull down his mask to speak. That’s because he wasn’t wearing one.

“I think it sends a signal of panic to people,” the first-term Idaho congressman said in a phone interview with The Press.

Admitting that he was voting yes “with anxiety,” Fulcher railed against the act of politicians at many levels overstepping their constitutional bounds.

“It’s the first time in history that government … has mandated people can’t earn a living,” he said, referring to mandates that have closed businesses and led to the need for aid like the package he voted for Thursday.

“It goes against my grain to add debt,” Fulcher said. “We’ve taken our grandkids’ money and are promising it out right now.”

Still, he believes businesses need the help because government put shackles on them in the first place. With the package approved Thursday, which President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign into law, Fulcher had advice for North Idaho businesses that missed out on Paycheck Protection Plan the first time around and might want to apply.

“The sooner the better,” he said. “There’s about 700,000 applications in the queue. This is probably only going to go for about a week.”

Fulcher said one problem prospective applicants have had is not finding a lender.

“We’ve facilitated a little network where we found lenders who will process and submit those applications, even if you don’t have a relationship with them,” he said, telling constituents to contact his Coeur d’Alene office to get connected. That number is 208-667-0127.

The aid package includes $25 billion for COVID-19 testing — something critics have said Idaho is sorely lacking.

“I don’t know what percentage Idaho will get, but for a state our size, a little bit will go a long way,” Fulcher said.

During an impassioned, one-minute House speech, an acceptable social distance from his mask-wearing colleagues, Fulcher explained that he would support the bill but decried the process leading to the vote.

He said that because of the health threat and legislators being forced to work from home, key processes are being bypassed.

“This is not going through regular order. This is all being done with only a few people in Washington, D.C.,” he told The Press. “It is more complicated when we’re all here, but it’s supposed to be. This mammoth legislation is being processed with really only five people who have a large say.”

In Fulcher’s view, Congress should be following regular order despite the health threat.

“We’ve got to get away from this,” he said. “Is there a risk? Of course there is. But this is our job. We signed up for it.”